Can RTU rise again?
Real Tamale United, RTU for short, was one of the most sensational clubs that ever graced the Ghanaian soccer scene. For more than a quarter of a century, until it was equally sensationally relegated from the premier division a few years ago, it brought joy not only to soccer–crazy fans up North but northerners and friends of the north elsewhere in the country.
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The exploits of RTU on the field also brought peace and unity to a volatile area like Dagbon, first and foremost. At the same time, it brought all northerners together under a common banner.
Unfortunately, it appears RTU is dead and buried. When it was first relegated in the 2010/11 season, it quickly made a miraculous comeback after only a season in the first division. But it was very clear the centre could no longer hold and it returned to the soccer doldrums once again, almost immediately.
Nothing but divine intervention will make RTU return to the premiership fold and to the dazzling form that made it a really fearsome club, both at home and away, and from which it earned the accolade, the Pride of the North. It now appears the shine is gone forever.
Today, RTU is like a lamb without a shepherd. The huge support base it had some years ago has certainly crumbled. Few supporters bother to go to the stadium to cheer this once formidable club because they have lost faith in the club.
Management
The little said about the management, the better. Only two or three are committed to the cause of the club at present. Unfortunately, for reasons best known to themselves, they are satisfied with the situation. They prefer to struggle with this situation without encouraging anybody to come and give a helping hand.
This was not the way the club was run in the past. At that time, everybody was involved. Management was united, always consulting and putting heads together.
The supporters were an integral part of management. They gave their time and whatever they had to ensure the success of RTU.
It came to a point when northern supporters of clubs such as Kotoko and Hearts especially had to abandon their old clubs to support RTU.
It was the same in the regions where supporters in Sekondi, Cape Coast, Tema, Swedru and other league centres were ready to die for RTU. They hosted RTU anytime the club was playing away, providing food and accommodation sometimes at their own expense.
But all that is gone. Nobody cares what is happening now, whether they are in Division One or have folded up. What is left of RTU revolves around Jones Abu Alhassan.
Jones is one of the most knowledgeable football administrators in the country. In fact, he eats and drinks football. He has a very wide knowledge about what goes on in the football world from Azerbaijan to Zambia and from Republic of Ireland to Russia.
When professionalism was introduced to Ghana football, it was Jones who drew up the constitution of RTU. That was what I got to know. He turned the club into a limited liability company where only the board matters.
My write-up on RTU
Later when I returned to Ghana from my sojourn in Nigeria, I still took interest in RTU. At the time of my return in 1996, RTU was still doing well. I realised the club had clocked 20 years so I decided to write the story of the club and what it had achieved in 20 years. The focus was on the “Makers of RTU!” So I talked to people such as Jones and Alhaji MND Jawula, a former Chairman of the club who had risen to become Deputy Chairman of the (GFA).
I tried to look at the beginning, how it was founded and went into the archives to look at the reports of the matches RTU played in the Middle League of 1976 and qualification to 1st Division.
On my own, I went to meet some of the old players, assembled their pictures from the past and captured some of the memorable pictures of the early years.
Somehow, Mr Henri Wientjes, whose company, Wienco, was the main sponsor of the Club, got to know about my intentions. He asked me to see him and when he saw the manuscript he took interest.
After everything had been done and was ready for printing, he asked me to send the final manuscript to the printers he himself chose. He then paid me off and asked me to follow up with the printers and do the proofreading. That was the end of the book.
Later when I bumped into Mr Wientjes after some time and I tried to find out what was happening, he only replied “politics, politics”. what kind of politics killed this initiative only emerged much later.
My interest in RTU remained unshaken. I still followed the activities of RTU.
Later when the fortunes of the club took a nosedive from 2005, I raised an alarm. I tried to find out what the problem was. I realised the club was being run under a directorate. The club did not have a chairman and there was a lot of in-fighting between the founders and the new executive. The old players joined in the fray while the supporters had taken sides with the ranks sharply divided.
I decided to write a paper which I submitted to Alhaji Jawula who also asked me to discuss with Jones who also accepted the proposals.
I called for a general congress of all stakeholders in the RTU matter. I was then mandated to go ahead and organise the congress.
I discussed the issue with the Regional Administration in Tamale. I also met a number of the old players and the supporters.
It was a big occasion in Tamale on October 8, 2008 when we all gathered at the Mariam Hotel under the chairmanship of a former Northern Regional Minister, the late Mustapha Idris Ali, with a past Regional Police Commander in attendance. He provided security because of the tension surrounding the meeting even though a number of stakeholders were present, including the old players and past executives, together with Mr Wientjes, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Wienco, sponsors of the club, Alhaji Jawula, Jones and Adam Munkaila who appeared to be new owners of the club, but failed to attend.
Follow up meeting
Even though there was to be a follow up meeting, that never materialised. The only thing that was of interest to Mr Weitjes was the alienation of the supporters’ front.
He charged me with the task of reviving the supporters union, I was not given support by the new owners of the club, especially Jones and Adam Munkaila who had so much influence over Mr Wientjes.
Although I went round all the major league centres of Kumasi, Sekondi, Sunyani, Tema and Accra to reorganise the supporters front, my efforts were never appreciated.
The stance of Jones and his friends was that we could not continue to run RTU on the old lines. It had to be run on modern, professional lines. He never accepted that RTU belonged to the people of Tamale and by extension the North. They also did not see how in these modern times, the regional administration should have any role in the club.
The most unfortunate aspect of the whole imbroglio was the non-recognition of the supporters group. Any time RTU had a match at any centre outside Tamale, the playing body would just drive to a designated hotel , sleep, eat and play their match and return to Tamale.
There was no interaction with the supporters, who in the past when RTU held sway, especially in the 80s and 90s, were the main stay of the club.
Gone are the days when with the birth of RTU in the 70s, the drift of northern players to the south stopped completely.
If Abukari, Malik Jibril, George Alhassan (Ga Mantse) and others found fame by moving down south, players such as Mohammed Choo, Musah States, Gamal, Issah Bobby, Rauf Iddi, Abedi Pele, Abu Moro and many others stayed in the north to make names for themselves.
One may ask where the northern players of today are? They don’t stay in the north but come down south to ply their trade.
Meanwhile, the present management of RTU go round looking for players in the south and take them up to play for the club. They are more than mercenaries. With this situation, how can RTU rise again? It remains a Tamale club but those who run it are all based in Accra. How can RTU ever return to days of yore? Never! the umbilical cord is broken. We are only left with the memories of one of the greatest clubs ever to emerge from Ghana.