Inside Kpando Sports Stadium: Match Day One!

By Manasseh Azure Awuni
I had never watched a premier league match until that Sunday. The match was between Kpando Heart of Lions and Wa All Stars. And the Kpando Sports Stadium was the venue. That was during the closing stages of the 2009/2010 Premier League season.
Apart from a miserable notice board at the Bank Square announcing a match between Wa All Stars and the only representatives of the Volta Region in the Glo Premier League, there was nothing to show that there was a premiership league match that day.
I had to travel to Peki that morning and I got back to Kpando late, thanks to two unknown friends travelling to Anfoega. Getting a vehicle from Peki Ayensu to Kpando that Sunday afternoon was more difficult than tracing the proverbial foot of the rainbow, and I would have slept there had those “Good Ghanaritans” not come to my rescue.
After agreeing to pay an additional GH¢2, the taxi I boarded from Anfoega to Kpando tossed me down the “rasta” road leading to the stadium. But that wasn’t the end of my woes. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to locate the “right” entrance. There were about three of them but tickets were sold at only two – Gate One and Gate Two. A ticket went for GH¢2 at Gate Two and GH¢3 at Gate One. I later discovered to my shock that Gate One was the popular stand while the Gate Two led to the VIP section of the stadium. The only difference, however, was that those at the VIP section stood behind the match officials.
When I finally located where I could secure a ticket, I had to spend eternity knocking at the metal gate to attract attention of the ticket sellers, who seemed miles away from the entrance. They finally heard and I entered.
After paying the GH¢3, I expected to get my ticket. I knew what I had paid was not enough to get me the kind of ticket I got to watch the Ghana-Cameroun match at the Ghana 2008 Africa Cup of Nations. But at least I expected a piece of paper with some security features, like the one the Student Representative Council (SRC) of my school had printed a few weeks ago for our tour to Mount Afadza. The security features are always necessary to keep potential tour stowaways at bay.
But what I received brought back childhood memories, memories of the days when concert was concert, and Kete-Krachi was Kete-Krachi. Those were the days when Bishop Bob Okala, Nkomode, and those in their group; when the late AAA, Dr. Paa Bobo, J.A. Adofo, and their contemporaries used to come to Kete-Krachi to perform at Agbenyega Concert House. I never attended any of such concerts and I never dreamt about ever attending one. Attending such an event could only be possible after denouncing Awuni Adaboro as my father.
But some of my classmates attended and to prove they, too, were “there some” they would come to school the following Monday, grinning from ear to ear.
“O yes, I was there. This is my stamp,” they would say, opening their palms proudly to display the stamped ink they took so much pain to prevent from cleaning.
So I was stamped at the Kpando Sports Stadium on Sunday April 4, 2010. Too shocked at the 15th century practice, I offered my right palm before I had time to think that the ink could be poisonous. But after shaking hands with a few friends, it was all gone.
The Lions won by two goals to one. The only goal I saw was the spot kick that enabled Wa All Stars to pull one back a few minutes before stoppage time. It was greeted with insults, hissing and cursing from the home fans. The referee and his assistants were biased, the supporters chorused. One expatriate was very furious. I don’t know his name and I didn’t bother to ask. But if you visit Kpando without seeing him, then you’re either in Agotime Kpetoe or Lolobi, not in Kpando. He sports no hair. He’s not bald. He has a son who is about five years. He, too, sports no hair. In my four days in Kpando, I saw him at least three times before meeting him at the stadium. Where? At Maxi Spot. He and his son, clutching two green, sweaty bottles. Star and Sprite!
“Police, don’t protect them [the referee and lines man]. Let them [angry supporters] beat them,” he yelled angrily as the foremost beneficiaries of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) led the referee and his two assistants away.
Here was a white man so passionate about the success of an indigenous club. And so are the people of Kpando and its surrounding towns. “It is our club,” they often say. From my little observation, some supporters were prepared to die for the club and I think this is where a club like Kpando Heart of Lions can rake some cash. Even if such gate proceeds cannot pay players, it can defray a lot of expenses and keep the club financially fit, I thought as I left the stadium.
But how can those who stamp palms of spectators and keep the ticket proceeds in their itchy palms be trusted to account for the sales when there is nothing to check them? I’m not an apostle of pseudo psychology but I could not trust the “ticket officials” at Gate One. Why can’t officials of Kpando Heart Lions do something about it? Can’t they at least print tickets and sell to spectators? I’m not suggesting they go to print World Cup tickets but, at least, those with simple security features to enable them check fraudulent deals, will do.
The stadium itself has its own problems. It is called a stadium but in the strictest sense of the word, it is many planets away from a stadium. There are no seats in the stadium, and spectators are expected to stand erect behind the wire mesh that separates the players on the pitch from the spectators. So if you get to the stadium late and people are standing along wire mesh then you have to forget it if you’re not very tall, tall enough to watch the match over the heads of others. What about the aged who cannot stand but would love to watch their home team play?
If authorities of the Kpando Heart of Lions cannot do great things, they can do small things in a great way, so say the philosophers.
Some decent seats! Makeshift tickets! Some monitoring systems to ensure that the “coins” gathered can defray some of the operational costs of the club! This may not be the best but it will improve conditions in the stadium a great deal.
My heart ached as I left the stadium that day. There was, however, one spectacular thing about the Kpando Sports Stadium, which I would forever remember with a pang of nostalgia. It was the irresistible borborbor rhythm from the Den Six Supporters Group. They were one of the two boborbor bands that kept the stadium ablaze with danceable rhythms as long as the match lasted.
That was my match day one in the Kpando Sports stadium and in a premier league match.
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