Ghanaian giants Kotoko has called on the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to ensure that players of Kotoko and Hearts undergo doping tests in Sunday’s clash between the two sides in the country's biggest game of the season.
The Porcupine Warriors asked the Premier League Board (PLB) and if possible, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to react in the matter.
Kotoko believes that the exercise will be the nation’s contribution towards the fight against the use of banned substances in sporting competitions and the sanitization of sports.
Administrative Manager of the Club, Mr. Benjamin Nti, who made the call argues that much as Kotoko does not have any direct evidence to buttress their suspicion of doping in our local game it would not be out of place for the GFA/PLB to take the issue up.
“It is the aim of Kotoko to have a clean and fair game and so we urge the football controlling body in Ghana to partner WADA in its international monitoring, promotion, and coordination of the international fight against doping in sport in all of its forms,†Nti said.
“We therefore are ready to submit our team to a doping test either before, at recess or after Sunday’s match so that cheating and unfair advantage would be completely uprooted from Ghana football,†he emphasized.
He has therefore called on the GFA through the PLB to lead the way in Africa with this epic clash.
“It must be noted that FIFA has previews Kotoko-Hearts matches as one of the big games around the world and this indicates that the world is watching this game with keen interest. This exercise would therefore be a plus to Ghana football,†Mr. Nti added.
WADA was founded in 1999 because of what had been a growing international effort to counter the effects of performance-enhancing substances in sport.
Their supreme international authority comes with respect to both doping test procedures and the determination of what substances will be the subject of athletic sanction when detected.
Source: Kotoko official website