The Ghana Premier League game between Dreams FC and Real Tamale United has been marred by scandalous acts of impersonation, after RTU used unregistered players to impersonate officially registered players of the club.

On Wednesday, Dreams came from behind to beat RTU 8-1 in an outstanding penultimate game of the season in Dawu.

With RTU already relegated before the game, Dreams needed the result to ensure their own safety and they expectedly secured all three points.

However, even before the game had progressed past the 5th minute mark, it began to emerge that the names on the team sheet presented by RTU for the game, were in fact, players who did not make the trip down south for the said match.

The Background

Before the game, RTU players had protested to management over unpaid salaries and bonuses in arrears for six months. With knowledge that the season was coming to an end and and any bargaining power fast eroding, the players threatened to boycott the remaining two games of the season.

And despite interventions and donations from some patrons of the club, including former Stanbic Bank Managing Director, Alhassan Adani and former President John Mahama, the club’s management failed to settle any of the said bonuses. The players went through with their threats and refused to travel to Accra for the game.

Some of the players, including Larry Adabo, then went on radio on Wednesday morning justifying the players’ decision not to travel.

Shockingly however, when the game started and RTU scored first, the name of the goalscorer published by the FA and all livescore apps was Larry Adabo, the same player who had said he and the rest of his teammates did not travel for the game in question.

It was then it became apparent that the entire team fielded by RTU, was made up of different players pretending to be those left behind in Tamale.

Criminal Conduct

After the game, the RTU captain, Baba Kushibo, whose name appeared on the team sheet but never made the trip, told Joy Sports he intends to report the matter to the police because it constituted impersonation.

“What I can confirm to you that none of the registered players of RTU took part in this match. We are all currently in Tamale.

“What happened in Dawu is absolutely unbelievable. Some people have a certain perception of the Ghana Premier League and they think they can do anything. The officials shocked me the most. If you’re an official and someone presents himself as Baba Kushibo, you should be able to tell them that they are not Baba Kushibo. But they allowed that to happen.

“This is criminal, it’s pathetic, and I’ll report this matter to the police,” he said.

RTU’s Troubling Season

In April this year, RTU got rid of coach Abdul Mumin and accused him of match manipulation following a 2-1 loss to Nsoatreman in Tamale. The fans accused the coach of making substitutions aimed at weakening the team, which they believed contributed to a defeat they deemed compromised.

The coach then fired back demanding unpaid salaries and bonuses going back the two years he had been in charge of the team.

Assistant coach Iddi Manza Alhassan took over the team on an interim basis and managed two wins since then, losing four.

RTU only gained promotion to the Ghana Premier League in 2021 following an 8-year absence.

Great Olympics vs RTU now in Jeopardy

Real Tamale United’s last game of the season is in Accra against Great Olympics on Sunday.

But there are now question marks around the possibility of the game going ahead given the incident of Wednesday, with the Ghana Football Association already launching an investigation into the Tamale-based club’s conduct and desperate to avoid another embarrassing episode.

The only way that game goes ahead is if RTU somehow manages to find an amicable settlement with its registered players and then buses them to Accra before Sunday.

Otherwise, the game will not go ahead and Olympics could be awarded automatic 3 points and 3 goals.

But that might still not be enough to keep Olympics up, unless Hearts of Oak and Karela United both fail to win their last games of the season.

Karela go to Medeama and Hearts of Oak visit Bechem.