They conceded 32 goals and scored 27 goals – though four more than what 5th place Asante Kotoko managed as the two-time league winners Accra Great Olympics say bye-bye to the Ghana premier league after 30 matches this season but are they still great? Your guesses might be as good as mine.
The Accra-based soccer club – coached by two separate coaches this season Godwin Attram and Tom Strand – fell to Bechem United in their last league game of the season as Amed Toure’s 3rd minute effort defeated the visitors.
Great Olympics, as the first part of their name suggests, is historically a great club. They were champions of Ghana in 1971 and 1974, lifted the FA Cup three times and reached the semifinals of the 1971 CAF Africa Cup of Champions Cup but has now been reduced to the status of a yo-yo club in the last twelve years of the the 21st century in which the club has been relegated five times in 2004/05, 2007/08, 2009/10, 2015 and 2017 and got promoted four times.
After being relegated in the 2007/08 season, when Olympics won promotion to the elite league in August 2009 winning the Zone 3 of the middle league, the other teams team that joined them to qualify to the premier league were New Edubaise United and Aduana Stars. Today Aduana Stars have won the league twice from that period to now whilst Edubiase United stayed at the top league before dropping to the second tier last season.
The lack of managerial stability at the club has not done them any good as coaches come and go.
The club that names likes of Jones Attoquayefieyo, Laryea Kingson, Charles Taylor, Dan Quaye as some of its former players no longer fields the best of playing squads today.
Life in the Division One league is really burdensome as clubs pay officiating fees by themselves and hardly receive any sort of TV revenue to boost income.
It is a financially hard division but now one of Ghana’s greatest clubs in history has to go back to there to compete in the season ahead and their recent record in that championship means they won’t struggle to regain promotion.
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