Posted by On Saturday when Medeama welcomed Ashanti Gold to the Akoon Park in Tarkwa for a top drawer. There was an incident that caught the eye of every football fan, and it wasn’t something that has to do with the performance from both sides or the results. It was the collapse of manager Samuel Boadu on the touchline, but that still wasn’t the highlight or talking point of the game. The talking point of the game was what happened afterwards, Samuel Boadu was rushed to the hospital with a private saloon car. Yes a private saloon car! There wasn’t even a single ambulance at the venue. Such dereliction of duty and a contravention of FIFA laws.
According to the laws of FIFA, an advanced life support (ALS) ambulance must be in place at any match venue or stadium at least 1.5 hours before the start of the match and must remain there until at least 1 hour after the end of the match. This ambulance must be dedicated solely to players, team officials, the referee team and match officers, but the reverse happened in Tarkwa on Saturday.
We could today look back at Saturday and be thankful that nothing consequential or remorseful transpired, but Saturday presented us with a bag of lessons and what should be done going forward. ALS Ambulance and all other necessary heath related gadgets must be made available at all match centers. I wouldn’t want to see Ghana football lose another manager in line of duty like we lost Emmanuel Offei Ansah in 2005.
Medeama on Sunday evening released a press statement announcing that club manager Samuel Boadu has been discharged from the hospital. He’s expected to be on the touchline when they travel to Dormaa to face Aduana Stars.