Murder! Not.

Really?

Was it really murder?

This was the screeching headline on the frontpage of the Asante Kotoko Express in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy at the Accra Sports Stadium. However, let's do a little soul-searching before we start beleiving this headline.

Ghana is no stranger to football tragedies. From our childhood days of playing soccer, any aficionado would have been witness to a brawl brought on by disagreements. But, it seems that when we grow up and start visiting stadia, we forget how riotous 'little' disagreements can become.

The 126 people who died at the Ohene Djan Stadium, then known as the Accra Sports Stadium were mostly men. Some, with kids. Others, breadwinners. Others, single and rasta.

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Whose fault was May 9? 'Twas Ghana's fault...
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These people knew that matches between Hearts and Kotoko were heated at best and fatal at worst. Yet, they died. Fine, some were innocent bystanders but you cannot help feeling that this should have been prevented. The police were agitated and thought firing tear gas was best thing. With the benefit of hindsight, they were wrong. In the aftermath several people have come up for stick. Some have been prosecuted. However, it will not bring the dead back. And, maddeningly, it would not change the mentality of football-goers. You don't believe, I see...

...or was May 9 plain myopia?

On February 8,this year, four fans died in another - yeah, you guessed it - Hearts versus Kotoko game. Do we learn? Well of course after the incident, an inquiry was done and the result was damning.

I do not want to reach the depth of cynicism. If not, I would have said that very soon, we would be reviewing the report of another 1000-paged Presidential enquiry. Don't look at me, it's the truth.

Whose fault was May 9? 'Twas Ghana's fault. Don't blame the police only. Don't blame the fans only. Don't blame the authorities only. Look within, the answer is there.

May 9 is 8 years.

May 9, 2001.

For the international audience it may be just another date. In Ghana, that date brings black memories for genuine football fans and Ghanaians in general. 8 years ago on that day, 127 lovers of football died at the then Accra Sports Stadium. They had gone to see the crunch game between Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko and the chaos occurred when fans stampeded after police fired teargas into a stand in that fateful league match.

A committee of enquiry set up to investigate the circumstances that led to the tragedy recommended the prosecution of the police officers who handled security on the fateful day. The officers have since been tried and acquitted of manslaughter.

Though the government paid 10 million old Ghana cedis or US$1000 apiece to families of the victims, that did little to help such dependants recover from the trauma and reality of losing a loved one and breadwinner for ever.

As a country we should do more for these unfortunate ones and here at sports world, we hope and pray that some remedial action, however belated it is will be taken as we mark 8 years tomorrow.

Football matches in Ghana are still plagued by organizational problems and a lot of our stadia and parks are still death traps rather than avenues for sportsmanship and the government and football authorities need to take urgent action on such issues.



Herbert Mensah, former Chief Executive Officer of Kotoko telling his bit at a memorial service a couple of years ago in Accra.

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