Assistant Coach of Accra Hearts of Oak, Mohammed Hamza Obeng has appealed to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and the Premier League Management Committee to take a second look at the scheduling of matches to make the competition very competitive.
According to him, the current arrangement has negative consequences for the health and performance of the players.
Speaking after watching the Phobians lose 3-0 to city rivals, Accra Great Olympics on Sunday, Coach Obeng noted that his players were fatigued, having made a long journey in midweek to honour an outstanding game.
Hearts lost 1-2 to Eleven Wonders at Techiman in an outstanding midweek game they hoped to win to consolidate their top four placing.
Addressing the media, Coach Obeng said “Travelling on a long journey to play midweek games and be expected to play again on a Sunday would surely have a toll on the players.”
“Playing three tough matches within a week is not easy. We traveled to Kumasi and Techiman and back to play a derby of this magnitude; I believe it is too much for the players. It had a telling effect on the team’s play.”
“Football is scientific and everything shows that the players were tired. The strength was not there after the journey they went through over the week.”
“The organisers can schedule the matches in such a way that when a team travel to the northern part of the country,it will be made to play all its games there before moving back to base because the current arrangement is affecting players a lot.”
According to him, this is a general observation across the board and not a peculiar one for Hearts alone or an excuse for the loss to Great Olympics.
Commenting on the game, he described it as a tough one, especially when it was against Great Olympics.
“We played against a well-drilled and a tactically better side. Olympics was superior, tactically, than us especially the first part of the game. We had poor organisation, the players were down and one could see a lot of fatigue setting in.”
“This game is history, we have to move on and concentrate on our next game and do all the necessary corrections from this game.”
BY RAYMOND ACKUMEY