Karela United will comply with FA ban
The management of Karela United have accepted to comply with the indefinite ban handed by the Ghana Football Association on the Crosby Awuah Memorial Park following an attack by the club's supporters on players and officials of Medeama after their MTN FA Cup Round of 32 game last Sunday. Medeama won 2-1.
The CEO of the club, Mr Elloeny Amande, disappointed by the unruly action by the club's supporters, said even though it was the first time such violent act had happened at their Anyinase venue, the club did not subscribed to any act of violence and were ready to submit to whatever investigations to be carried out.
Advertisement
A GFA statement yesterday noted that the FA's Competitions Department had been taxed to fix the venues for Karela's upcoming home matches with due regards to the distance to be travelled by the away teams.
Also, the GFA Prosecutor has been tasked to proffer the appropriate charges against Karela and for the Disciplinary Committee to sit on this matter expeditiously.
Not against action
“I think the issue is that something has gone horribly wrong and has to be tackled so, in essence, we are not against the actions that are being taken to ensure that lives are protected at the venue," Mr Amande told the Daily Graphic yesterday.
He described the attack as a possible retaliation against a similar incident suffered by the club at the hands supporters of Medeama who pelted them with stones and poured urine on the visiting fans during a league clash at Tarkwa. However, he stated emphatically that there was no justification for the crude attack on players and officials of Karela last Sunday.
Mr Amande explained that even before last Sunday’s game, tension had heightened among the Karela supporters who unusually had organised a series of meetings plotting to avenge the attack they suffered at Tarkwa. But the club's management picked up intelligence and decided to engage their supporters to calm down.
Fans agitation
“The fans were very agitated throughout the whole week and the management had to engage with them to try and quell the signals that were being picked up.”
He admitted that Karela had also suffered violence at a point during the season, but because they wanted to protect the brand, they neither brought the issue to the media nor reported it to the FA except for an informal complaint they made to the FA.
According to the Karela CEO, even though there were security men at the venue during last Sunday's match, they were not enough to deal with the multitude of fans at the stadium, and advised that home teams went the extra length of protecting visiting teams.