Former Black Stars defender, Samuel Inkoom, has expressed his thoughts on the routine renting out of football pitches to artistes for concerts and shows.
Speaking in an interview with Berla Mundi on TV3, the former Antalyaspor player, Samuel Inkoom, when asked about the criticism from sports journalists regarding the rental of the pitches for concerts, responded that football pitches are solely intended for football purposes.
“Football pitch is for football, let me put it that way. But maybe the leaders think that nobody is playing the game and so we have consider to do this and do that. But in my opinion, a football pitch is supposed to be a football pitch,” he said.
The debate about using football pitches as concert venues dates back to December 2023, when Stonebwoy’s Bhim Concert was held at the Accra Sports Stadium. The large crowd that attended the event left the pitch in a state of disarray, with parts of the grass torn out and the field littered with rubbish.
Join our WhatsApp Channel for more news
A Ghanaian league match scheduled the day after the show had to be postponed due to the unkempt state of the field. This infuriated sports journalists in the country who were worried about the cost and expenses that would be incurred in order to fix the pitch.
When the host asked Inkoom, if it was appropriate for the authorities to have allowed Stonebwoy to use the Accra Sports Stadium for his concert, Inkoom responded in the affirmative. According to him, Stonebwoy was putting Ghana on the map so “it was not wrong for him to perform on the pitch”.
However, Inkoom suggested that the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and other authorities can implement certain measures to protect the pitch if they still want to rent it out for concerts in the future.
“There are certain things they can do and it will not affect the grass. They have to put certain things on the pitch that even when you do a show nothing will happen,” he said.
Inkoom noted that European stadiums can withstand concerts without sustaining damage, but in Ghana, the pitches are left unprotected, which affects the games later.
“They do a lot of shows on pitches in Europe, Beyonce and all. It’s something different. They can finish the show and nothing happens. They cover the whole pitch but this one we are not doing that and it is affecting the game as well,” Inkoom stated.
Samuel Inkoom is a former Ghanaian professional footballer who played as a defender. During his international career, he made 44 appearances for the Ghana national team between 2008 and 2014. Inkoom has had an extensive club career, playing for teams in nine different countries, including Switzerland, Ukraine, France, Greece, the United States, Portugal, Turkey, Bulgaria, and most recently, Georgia.
