League patronage will suffer due to clash with AFCON – Nyantakyi

Soccer News of Monday, 12 January 2015

Source: myjoyonline.com

Kwesi Nyantakyi Wild

President of the Ghana Football Association, Kwasi Nyantakyi has admitted the AFCON tournament could affect the patronage of the First Capital Plus premier league, which kicks off next week.

The 2014/2015 premier league season starts on January 18, a day after the AFCON kicks off in Equatorial Guinea.

But many soccer fans are expected to follow the Black Stars while others will be keeping a close eye on other African teams, rather than watching the local league which has become unpopular.

But speaking at the unveiling of an insurance package for the Black Stars by GLICO at the GFA on Friday, FA President, Kwesi Nyantakyi admits there will be a drop in attendance at league centers.

He, however, noted plans are being considered to make for the lost time.

“Under normal circumstances, we will not play the league and the AFCON at the same time,” he said.

He said “What we did is, we avoided playing league matches on Ghana match days. There aren’t many matches on Wednesday’s. It is possible there will be clashes.

“Definitely, there will be an effect on patronage. But we will also have to catch on lost time.”

The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, also known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations Equatorial Guinea 2015 for sponsorship reasons, is scheduled to be the 30th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the international football championship of Africa.

It is organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and held from 17 January to 8 February 2015.

The tournament was initially scheduled to be hosted by Morocco, who previously hosted it in 1988, but Morocco refused to host the tournament at the scheduled dates because of the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa. The host country was later changed to Equatorial Guinea.