Opinion: Kabiru Moro must receive further punishment for his life-threatening tackle on Emmanuel Hayford

Published on: 14 March 2014
Opinion: Kabiru Moro must receive further punishment for his life-threatening tackle on Emmanuel Hayford
Emmanuel Hayford in a dire state as he was being rushed to hospital for medical attention. Photograph: Hearts of Oak official Facebook page

By Akyereko Frimpong Manson

Follow Akyereko on Twitter: @Akyereko

The Ghana Football Association's disciplinary wing must use Kabiru Moro's horrifying tackle on Hearts of Oak midfielder Emmanuel Hayford as a case to assure player protection in games.

A needless tackle is potentially going to deny the First Capital Plus Ghana Premier League one of it's brilliant players for the rest of the season and the GFA's DC must not allow players carrying such destructive mentality into games to escape punishment.

The Disciplinary Committee must take a look at the footage from the incident and take further actions against the player immediately as Hayford awaits the outcome of his x-ray scan today.

The Medeama SC attacker clearly went into that 40th minute silly tackle with bad intentions to erode the brilliant midfielder from the game and referee John Atikese could have taken an appropriate action other than his generous yellow card caution.

Hayford, who is one of the most brilliant players on the local scene had shot Hearts ahead in the 20th minute and was by far the most exciting player on the pitch before Moro decided to end his afternoon in an off-the-ball incident, punching a blow wickedly into his neck.

The former Amidaus Professionals midfielder was blacked out by Moro in a wicked rugby-tackle and the haplessly stricken midfielder failed to continue as the medical team on attendance rushed him straight to hospital to rescue his life.

The frustration and pain ran still for over eight hours as he was rushed from hospital to hospital seeking medical attention which was unavailable before being finally rushed to Accra from the Western Region.

Moro's tackle was purely jungle like and could threaten the career of the midfielder. Moro has received abuse on social media with fans expressing gull over his ill-matter tackles in his games against Hearts.

Hayford posted in his Facebook statue update: "[Please] the result of my x-ray will be ready today so [I] need your prayers."

Though is it unconventional on the local scene to find players suffer punishment for dangerous tackles aside decisions taken on-the-pitch by match officials, the Disciplinary Committee must follow the English Premier League player protection programme and sanction the player.

In the English Premier League, there is a committee that look into such instances and players have been punished on a countlessly with Stoke City's Ryan Shawcross being an example.

Hearts, as a club feel unhappy with the performance of the center referee in the game and the banner headline of the club's official newspaper (Hearts' News) sums things up: USELESS REFEREE ATIKESE, AN APOLOGY OF A REFEREE.

The Phobians can still write to the Ghana Football Association to look into the incident and punish Kabiru Moro but the 20-time Ghana champions have not officially spoken on that option.

But they could also decide to include the incidence in a formal protest against Atikese; that is, if they decide to petition the FA over his performance.

Medeama's match-winner, scored by Moro was also fiercely protested by Hearts as he appeared to have fouled Hearts keeper Philemon McCarthy before scoring his goal late in the game.

Mohammed Polo's pitch invasion after Medeama's winning goal could attract sanctions and equally Moro must be punished even if Hearts refuse to report him over his conduct in the game.

It has been a bad week for Hearts as attacker Thomas Abbey broke his leg after going into a challenge with 2013 Ghana U20 keeper Eric Ofori-Antwi during their 3-0 thrashing of Amidaus Professionals on Sunday.

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