Legon Cities defender Joseph Adjei has expressed a heartfelt apology for his rash tackle on Justice Blay in Ghana premier league matchweek 20 fixture at the Akoon Park last Sunday.
The Medeama midfielder was forced off just before the break after he suffered the setback in the side’s 2-1 win over Legon Cities.
Adjei came in hard on Blay, who remained on the ground for minutes with a painful right knee and had to be replaced.
Scans at the Tarkwa Municipal Hospital revealed that the midfielder has suffered a fracture of distal 1/3 of right fibula and it is unclear if he will recover fully on time to play any part in the ongoing campaign.
Joseph Adjei
However, the defender says he didn’t have any malicious intent for going in for that tackle against Justice Blay and that he is really sorry for his action.
“I know that it may have seemed like I did, but I did not mean to make that Bro. My actions were unintentional, and I feel terrible,Sad and Heartbroken…I am really sorry and wish u a speedy recovery…Your comeback will be stronger than first…,” he posted on his Instagram account after the game.
Dreams FC registered their first win in four matches after posting a 1-0 win against Karela United FC at the theatre of Dreams, Dawu Monday.
The match day 20 fixture, originally scheduled for Sunday had to be rescheduled after a heavy down pour made parts of the Dawu the pitch unplayable.
Osafo Abednego scored the only goal of the match on the 90th minute mark after soaring above everyone else to slam home Emmanuel Ocran’s corner kick.
The defender directed his header straight into the top left corner to score the match winner. Agyenim Boateng had a sitter to increase the tally for the Still Believe lads but the former Nzema Kotoko man hit his free kick straight into the arms of Karela United goalkeeper Yaw Ansah.
The result ends Dreams FC’s three game winless run – having recorded two defeats to Great Olympics (1-0) and Medeama SC (2-0) and drawn (1-1) with Inter Allies in the process.
They have moved one place up to sixth in the League table with 30 points after 20 matches. Karela United are now in fifth place with 32 points.
It’s as if they were waiting for the Ghana Football Association (GFA) President, Kurt Okraku, to finish his peace tour of the Bono and Ahafo regions so they show him that, whatever he said on violence during his tour last week was irrelevant. I am not here to fault Kurt’s peace tour, which saw some of the top brass of the GFA, traveling hundreds of kilometers with him to the middle and northern belts of the country to engage club owners and administrators on the need to play football in a peaceful environment.
But, Ebusua Dwarfs’ coach, Ernest Thompson Quartey’s narrative of how Berekum Chelsea fans beat him on suspicion of possessing juju, leads me to question the impact of the peace tour. “They wanted to search me because they were suspecting I had juju on me,” Thompson said in a video posted on social media. ”So when I said no, it was only my phone and other things [in my pocket], they forcibly opened my zip…When I tried to resist, they started punching me, I fell down, and some were kicking me.
”This shouldn’t be happening in Ghana football in this day and age. We have come of age, we are in the scientific world to be pummeled, kicked and all that. I have a family at home. I can’t die because of football.” Hard questions have to be asked of the GFA and of the Police administration, in whose remit, incidents of lawlessness fall squarely. GFA does not want to be named in these issues but they invariably will suffer the mortal damage arising from violence and the attendant Police inaction.
That’s the reason I have advocated a no holds bar GFA-Police engagement, not a private boardroom conversation which comes across as a public relations exercise. Violence cannot be tackled with seemingly indifferent attitude to open, hard talk. I watched with admiration how the GFA President in September 2020 decisively addressed Congress – virtually calling out misbehaving members of the association. Of course, it’s not Congress time and we can’t call out the Police anyhow.
However, lives are at stake. The football business is on the line. We risk losing precious lives at the stadium if immediate, decisive steps are not taken to combat violence. The GFA President’s remark that he is not the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to arrest hooligans was unfortunate regardless of how he sought to explain himself. He had an opportunity on Joy FM to inspire confidence. He rather gave no hope on how they would deal with violence with Police expertise.
As Dwarfs’ coach stated, he has a family back home. Why must he be beaten and his life endangered because of football? Our football is offering a lawless turf for hoodlums. Fans beat referees anyhow and now they are brazenly turning their primitive acts on coaches. They are sure of no Police arrest. The Police appear helpless and miserable. Why should football hooligans get away with crime – the exact crime the law would punish appropriately if it happens outside football.
Lives shouldn’t be lost again before we wake up to the fact that hooliganism has taken a comfortable seat in our game but it deserves no such seat. The talk about the Police not having adequate numbers re-emphasises what is a national problem. The notion that the police aren’t deployed at the stadium to arrest lawless fans is untenable.
The claim that the police live with the hooligans, hence there is a difficulty in arresting them may be true but so inexcusable. Hooligans must be arrested and prosecuted. Limbs must not be mutilated, faces wounded and disfigured, lives lost before we get tough on violence. The GFA and the Police must wake up.
Indian High Commissioner to Ghana, H.E. Sugandh Rajaram has visited our training facility at Adako Jachie in Kumasi.The visit on Sunday was to familiarise himself with the base of this club which he describes as ‘the heart of Ashanti Region and Ghana football.’
H. E. Sugandh Rajaram was received by Management led by Chief Executive Officer, Nana Yaw Amponsah, who showed him the training fields and also took him around our soon-to-be-completed Sports complex.
The club is expanding infrastructure at Adako Jachie with the latest addition being the construction of a prefabricated Sports complex. The visit by the representative of the Republic of India government in Ghana comes as both parties look for areas for collaboration shortly.
Indian High Commissioner to Ghana, H.E. Sugandh Rajaram has visited our training facility at Adako Jachie in Kumasi.The visit on Sunday was to familiarise himself with thee base of this club which he describes as ‘the heart of Ashanti Region and Ghana football.’
H. E. Sugandh Rajaram was received by Management led by Chief Executive Officer, Nana Yaw Amponsah, who showed him the training fields and also took him around our soon-to-be-completed Sports complex.
The club is expanding infrastructure at Adako Jachie with the latest addition being the construction of a prefabricated Sports complex. The visit by the representative of the Republic of India government in Ghana comes as both parties look for areas for collaboration shortly.
H. E. Sugandh Rajaram was elated by what he saw a he hailed our unrivalled impact on the country and told Nana Yaw Amponsah his doors are always opened to him.
“I came to see how the club is doing. You know, this is the heart of the region and the national game as well. Young people are living by what you have done with your efforts and that is excellent.”
In-form Ghana Premier League forward Joseph Esso has completed a move to Algerian side MC d’Algers from Dreams FC.
Esso after his successful medical put pen to paper on Monday in a three years deal with the club that has recently turned attention to the Ghana Premier League.
Esso and the President of Dreams FC Jiji Mohammed Alifoe arrived in Algeria in Friday with the player undergoing a successful medical examination on Sunday.
Dreams FC agreed a deal with the Algerian giants for the transfer of the in-form striker who joined from giants Accra Hearts of Oak.
The 24 year old joins Daniel Lomotey (WAFA to ES Setif) and Kwame Opoku (Kotoko to USM Algiers) to be snapped up by a top flight Algerian team in recent times.
Esso scored 11 goals and provided two assist for the Dawu-based outfit this season before his departure.
Esso was recently handed a call up into Ghana’s senior national team for the 2022 AFCON qualifiers with South Africa and Sao Tome after his wonderful output in the Ghana Premier League.
He becomes the third Ghanaian to join the Algerian league in three months after Lomotey and Kwame Opoku.
The match-day 20 of the 2020/21 Ghana Premier League were honoured over the weekend providing some intriguing results.
Hafiz Konkoni scored a brace as Bechem United obliterated Aduana Stars 4-0 at the Nana Fosu Gyeabour Park.
Hearts Of Oak returned to winning ways with a slender 1-0 win over struggling Inter Allies, thanks to Afriyie Barnie’s first half strike.
Great Olympics and Asante Kotoko played a goalless stalemate in the top of the table clash.
But the game between Dreams FC and Karela United which was rained off after second-half downpour on Sunday was played today.
A late Abednego Asafo’s header secured a 1-0 win for Dreams FC against Karela United.
It would be recalled that the game was halted five minutes into the second half and was continued today Monday, April 19, 2021at 10am at the same venue as stipulated in the rules and regulations.
Below is the full statistics:
Accra: Great Olympics 0-0 Asante Kotoko
Man of the match: Ebenezer Sekyere (Great Olympics)
Cape Coast: Elmina Sharks 1-0 WAFA Scorer: Samuel Arthur
Man of the match: Lawrence Agyekum (WAFA)
Techiman: King Faissl 0-0 AshantiGold SC
Man of the match: Ibrahim Danlad (King Faisal )
Techiman: Eleven Wonders 0-1 Liberty Professionals
Scorer: Kwaku Karikari
Man of the match: Kwaku Karikari. (liberty)
Tarkwa: Medeama 2-1 Legon Cities
Scorers: Prince Opoku Agyemang, Kwasi Donsu | | Issaka Mohammed
Man of the match: Eric Kwakwa (Medeama)
Bechem: Bechem United 4-0 Aduana Stars
Scorers: Hafiz Konkoni(2x), Dennis Modzaka, Adjetey Adjei Sampson
Moro Salifu
Man of the match: Moro Salifu (Bechem United)
Dawu: Dreams FC 1-0 Karela United
Scorer: Abednego Asafo
Man of the match: Abednego Asafo(Dreams FC)
Berekum: Berekum Chelsea 2-1 Ebusua Dwarfs
Scorers: Stephen Anokye Badu, Kofi Owusu | | Enoch Affram
Man of the match: Stephen Anokye Badu (Berekum Chelsea)
Medeama SC on Sunday evening disclosed that midfielder Justice Blay has been ruled of action between 2-3 months with a fractured fibula.
Blay was forced off just before the break after he suffered the setback in the side’s 2-1 win over Legon Cities in a match-day 20 fixture of the Ghana Premier League at the Akoon Park.
The club’s official statement read;
“Scans at the Tarkwa Municipal Hospital have revealed that the midfielder has suffered a fracture of distal 1/3 of right fibula.”
“It’s unclear if he will recover fully on time to play any part in the ongoing campaign.”
Joseph Adjei’s savage tackle means the midfielder will sit on the sidelines for the rest of the matches in the season.
Blay is under strict medical care as he begins the process of recovery.
