Seasoned Sports Journalist, Fentuo Tahiru Fentuo, says the Hearts of Oak – Kotoko dominance in the Ghana Premier League has long been over.

According to him, the two clubs in the past seven years have only managed to secure a title each in the league, and prior to that, they had been floundering against the smaller teams.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he said while the two clubs remain relevant to Ghana’s football history and the Premier League, they are no longer the formidable giants they used to be in the days of yore.

“I think their dominance has been over for a long time. In the last … seven years Kotoko and Hearts of Oak have won the title once each time and they won it back to back in 2021 and 2022. Hearts of Oak won in 2021, it was their first title in 11 years, Kotoko won last year and that was their first title since 2015 so it's been a long time coming for both clubs and their dominance has been long over  especially in the Ghana Premier League.

“ And it started in the late 2000s, that’s why Jerome talked about when a team can come from Division one and their very first season in the Ghana Premier League they go all the way to win the title. This is Aduana Stars in 2010, it was a magical story. The following year Berekum Chelsea won the league; Hearts of Oak and Kotoko were nowhere near.

“Kotoko came back in 2012 of course with Maxwell Konadu, won the league and then they went on a three year run where they won the league in 2012, 2013, 2014, then Ashanti Gold took over in 2015 while Stars took over in 2016, 2017 Aduana Stars. So Hearts of Oak and Kotoko have not dominated this league in the past ten years and the numbers are there to show.”

He said while the two big clubs have been struggling to reinstate their dominance in the tournament, smaller clubs have been putting in the work to forge their own dominance in the game.

One such club, he says, is Medeama FC which he described as being very unfortunate in the Premier League.

“And my opinion is that Medeama has been very unfortunate. In the two years when Covid and the Anas expose disrupted the Ghana Premier League, Medeama probably would have won the league on both occasions because before the disruption they were on top of the league, and they actually had better leagues then than the team that won the league this season.

“So if it wasn’t for Anas and if it wasn’t for Covid we could have been speaking about Medeama having two more titles. So this has been far from their best season as far as their performances in the last ten years have shown. But they have won and they have totally deserved it.”

According to Fentuo, Medeama’s victory is like poetic justice “because I feel like Medeama sporting club is one of those sporting clubs that perhaps Ghana Football owes a title in that they have been very persistent, they’ve produced some very good players, and when they have done well in other competitions like in the FA cup where they’ve won two titles and gone to Africa, they’ve given very good account of themselves.”