Real Tamale United Football Club (RTU) has filed a complaint at the Ghana Football Association over Sunday’s violence that disrupted their match away to Sunyani based BA United.
Public Relations Officer of RTU, Sey Mubarik confirmed this on Radio Justice’s Super Morning Show Monday morning with Mumuni Yirifa Yunus.
According to him, the Tamale based club will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the club gets the maximum points from the protest.
“If you have been following the league this season, you’ll know that RTU has pursued protests leading to the suspension of about two to three referees for misconduct, so yes, we will not relent until we get justice” Mr Mubarik said.
He said even though the team was traumatized with the events of Sunday, the playing body and coaches are in high spirits to finish the season on the high.
What happened
On Sunday, the Division One League match between BA United and RTU had to be called off after fans of the home side invaded the pitch and physically assaulted the referee, Maxwell Hanson.
The match officials were attacked while the game was ongoing, after the referee awarded the Tamale side a penalty for a handball in the 18yard box in the BA United box.
The decision did not go down well with fans of the home side who invaded the pitch and chased the referee in the field, before pouncing on him and gave him the beating of his life.
But for the timely intervention of a combined team of police and military, the officials would have been lynched.
Players of RTU were also thrown with projectiles, injuring at least one.
After the officials were forced by the rampaging fans to resume play, the referee reversed the penalty decision awarded the away side.
He however called off the match after 60mins of play with the match still goalless, for safety reasons.
Police and military had to escort the officials to the police station to protect them from further attacks.
“It was scary”, one fan who was at the Sunyani Coronation Park, the venue of the match told Justice Sports.
“All of us were scared for our lives. It is shameful that in this 21 century, acts of hooliganism still exist in Ghana football” he said.
Videos of it has since gone viral on social media with many football experts and followers condemning the acts.
Police had to fire multiple warning shots to disperse angry youth of Sunyani who attacked the RTU team bus while it was heading out of the Brong Ahafo Regional capital.
The bus which was carrying players, coaches and other officials of the club came under attack while driving through the city with a police escort, with the attackers throwing stones and other projectiles.
The glasses of the right side of its front door were hit and broken, however no injuries were reported.
A Zeno.FM StationWhy the match was important for RTU
Before Sunday’s match, The ‘Pride of the North’ were four matches away from securing top flight football next season, a win would have extended their single point lead on the league table.
Real Tamale United was relegated from the Ghana Premier League in the 2012/2013 league season and has since struggled to return to top flight football.
Story: Justice Sports