/ 10 February 1999

GHANAIAN FOOTBALL FANS RIOT

ONE person died and eleven others were injured at the weekend when guards opened fire on angry football fans who tried to storm the palace of Ghana’s Ashanti king at the weekend, police said on Monday. Some 2000 fans rushed to the Asantehene’s residence in Kumasi, 200km north-west of Accra. The crowd was protesting the imminent nomination of the Kotoko football club’s chairman. The king, who is the life patron of the Kotoko football club, has final say in nominating the chairman of the board of directors. When rumours circulated that the fans’ preferred candidate, Herbert Mensah, would not be named to the post, they decided to storm the palace. As a result of the violence, Kotoko players boycotted their league-opening away match on Sunday against challenger Dwarfs.