On a humid Monday afternoon at the University of Ghana Stadium, the final whistle didn’t just signal the end of a game.
It signaled the end of a dream. Legon Cities FC, once the glitziest club in the Ghana Premier League, were officially relegated after a 4–1 drubbing by Nations FC.
The result capped off a winless streak of nine matches and ended any hope of survival. For many, it wasn’t a surprise. The writing had been on the wall. But that didn’t make the pain any easier to bear.
Just last season, Legon Cities escaped relegation by the narrowest of margins. This year, there was no such miracle.
The drop had been coming, but for a club that once commanded headlines and drew crowds with celebrity performances and marquee signings, the fall is nothing short of stunning.
From Wa All Stars to Accra’s royal ambition
To understand how it all unraveled, you have to go back to the beginning.
Legon Cities was born out of WA All Stars, a club founded in 2006 by then-GFA President Kwesi Nyantakyi.
Built from the Northern Region, they rose steadily and were crowned Ghana Premier League champions in 2016, a stunning achievement for a club less than a decade old.
Then came the transformation.
In December 2019, following Nyantakyi’s exit from Ghana football, the club was sold to businessman Richard “King” Atikpo.
It was relocated to Accra and rebranded as Legon Cities FC. With the move came a new identity and a new mission: to turn football into entertainment.
“We are businessmen and we want to do business with football,” Atikpo famously declared and he wasn’t bluffing.
Big names, big lights, big dreams
The club didn’t just arrive, it announced itself. The Royals, as they were now known, made waves with the signing of Ghana legend Asamoah Gyan, whose return to the domestic league was met with euphoria.
National team goalkeeper Fatau Dauda was another big addition. The club’s matchdays became events, featuring performances from top artists like Shatta Wale, Wendy Shay, and Medikal.
They revamped their branding, unveiled a customized team bus, and brought in respected coaches like Maxwell Konadu, Bashir Hayford, and Paa Kwesi Fabin.
For a time, it looked like they were leading Ghanaian club football into a new era, where branding, business, and sport intersected seamlessly.
But football has a way of exposing what lies beneath the surface.
Glamour without grit
Despite the off-pitch buzz, the club never quite found its rhythm on the field. Coaching changes became frequent.
Squad balance was inconsistent. Results were erratic. For all the fanfare, Legon Cities never cracked the league’s top tier consistently.
They hovered around mid-table, sometimes flirting with relegation, like last season, but always managing to survive.
Until they didn’t.
The 2024/25 campaign was marred by instability and underperformance. The energy that once surrounded the club seemed to vanish.
Fans stopped showing up in numbers. The music stopped playing. The business talk quieted down.
Questions mounted. Did the owners pull back after not seeing immediate returns? Was the early spending mismanaged? Did the club focus too much on the show and not enough on substance?
Whatever the answers, the result is clear: Legon Cities FC will be playing Division One football next season.
Meanwhile, Nations FC soar
While one project collapsed, another soared.
Nations FC, the team that hammered the final nail into the Royals’ coffin, surged to the top of the league with Monday’s win.
Their 57 points now put them one ahead of Bibiani Gold Stars, with three games left to play. For Nations, the title is in sight. For Legon Cities, the rebuild begins.
A cautionary tale
Football is unforgiving. It’s not just about ambition or marketing muscle. It’s about building slowly, wisely, and with purpose. Legon Cities dared to dream big, and for a moment, it looked like the dream could become reality.
But dreams need more than flash to survive.
The club’s fall is a cautionary tale, not just for Ghana football, but for any project that confuses noise with progress. Branding matters, yes. Investment matters too. But in the end, football is a game of inches, of discipline, of slow and steady growth.
As they prepare for life in Division One, Legon Cities face a different kind of challenge, one that won’t be solved with high-profile signings or flashy press conferences.
This time, they’ll have to build from the ground up. And if they get it right, maybe one day, the music will play again.
FKA/MA
Watch scenes from the opening ceremony of the 2025 Western Region Inter-Schools event