Today’s game is NOT the President’s Cup. I’m not badmouthing the fixture. I’m just telling you what you’re so hyped up about.
It’s ANOTHER commemorative game; a friendly, in the middle of the season between the greatest football rivals out of Ghana to mark Ghana@60.
Another day, this could easily pass as a welcoming duel to celebrate such an important day had a subtle subculture not rear it’s head into the management of these otherwise very glamorous clubs where the path of least resistance is a default choice.
Today, it’s anything for the money regardless of how much. More so when we cant seem to be innovative enough to alter our dwindling fortunes on every side – on the pitch and in our finances.
Who knows? 1st July is also just on the Horizon and we’d see another Hearts vs Kotoko on the cards.
This is a legendary fixture that’s been built over decades to portray a certain degree of prestige and excellence. One that football fans mark in red each year on their calendar as a MUST SEE game; the real cocaine with an incredible street value that made people sleep over at match venues a day before kick off.
Today, by virtue of whatever passes as an interim gain, “Kotoko ne Hearts” can be served at your next birthday for only GHC50,000 and even that has room for a beatdown if your negotiation game is on.
No one is postulating a theory that has the old aura of Hearts vs Kotoko fixtures finding an instant resurgence in a reversal of current trends where we play on the regular for any reason that serves an instant but mediocre gratification like a 100K in appearance and winner’s price money. At least I’m not saying that.
What I’ve been trying to say and for a couple of years now is to try and avoid such temptations that further erodes the attraction left of a legendary fixture which is presently suffering from a plethora of mishaps – be it the clubs’ own inability to enjoy the perks of their traditions while staying relevant in a now very dynamic football climate that’s ever so evolved or the larger challenge of having to look up to a football governing body (GFA) that’s fixated on one National Team for over a decade now for inspiration.
There’s a good reason why I’m not meddling in the challenges of our game in the broader sense of it right now and this reason is situated at the centre of that loud school of thought that insists that Kotoko and Hearts, even amidst the limitations of Ghana’s economic environment, could revise their management practices to shore up interest and bring confidence back into football fans.
These two clubs, many still insist, have the destinies of Ghana’s very ailing football anchored on theirs. There’s an extent to which this view point can hold as true and that’s enough to expect more from both clubs.
Let’s build these brand back up again. These regular, ordinary games is not one of the ways how. Only an insincere follower of the game will deny just how much #HOOvsKAK has never been the same since it was handed down to “us”.
We love our game and we mean to see it flourish.
Nyfa Kotokovski 