The competitiveness of the 2020/21 Ghana Premier League (GPL) season as well as officiating are of high standards, but the quality of the pitches and incentives for players leave much to be desired, according to former Hearts of Oak star Esme Mends.
The sharp-witted football scout admits to some lapses that used to engulf the local league, notably in the areas of questionable officiating of matches, as well as low standards in terms of play. However, he believes that the league has seen a massive improvement now, ranging from the competitiveness of the games, quality of play which has won the admiration of the stakeholders of the game. To him, one area where the GPL has seen a major improvement is the area of officiating. Referees have been considerably fair both in home and away matches which has given players reasons to raise their game.
Esme believes that previously, it was difficult for clubs to win away matches due to bad officiating, which left players demotivated any time they played away from home. Meanwhile, these are gradually and increasingly becoming a thing of the past, and the local league is restoring its glory.
“This time around the referees are on top, because when you go to some [match] centres you don’t expect to have fair officiating. Now it’s fair, everything is fair, so you hear of teams going to win away matches, the referees are okay, they are fantastic. I am so much happy with them and with their performance”, Mends said in admiration, speaking exclusively to ghanasportspage.com.
On the standard of play, Esme Mends expressed his admiration for the games unreservedly, attributing the high standards of play from the players to the improvement in the referees performance, which he believes has given the players the ‘oomph’ to play their hearts out.
“The boys [players] also raise their game, because you get fair officiating, you know that when you go to places like say, Berekum [Golden City Park] you will get fair officiating. So the boys raise their game. It’s very competitive ,look, I’m close to the clubs and I see. If you are afar you might think the league is not competitive but look, it’s very competitive. Let no one think it’s not competitive”, Mends noted.
On the contrary, Esme Mends has reservations about the level of incentives for the players in the local league, and the standard of pitches being used. Despite his satisfaction about the competitiveness of the league, he believes their is more room for improvements in these two areas.
“It’s left with one of two things [to improve upon] but it will come; the incentives, the training pitches and our pitches on which our matches are played. These are also part of the reason why you don’t really see the beauty of the game and how good our players are. So if we get these things right, I believe you will know that our players are very good, especially the young ones”, he concluded.
