ADDIS ABABA – With a match at hand against the defending champions Jimma Abajifar today, Tuesday, at Mekele, Mekele Seba Inderta will surely complete the first round on top of the Ethiopian Premier League table. Following their 1-0 win over the visiting side Bahir Dar City last week Sunday at Mekele, they consolidated their leadership on 32 points from 14 games. Whatever the results of the match against Jimma, they are sure to complete the first round on top of the table. Sidama Coffee are second in the line up on 30 points from 15 games. The far away third are Saint George on 26 points from the same 15 games.
The drama of the season’s Ethiopian Premier League football competition was thrilling and exciting. Just a few days earlier the former league leaders Saint George suffered a 2-0 away defeat at the hands of Wolayita Dicha in Sodo. This was little expected prior to the game. A week before that St. George dropped two points as a result of a 1-1 tie with the visitors Fasil City at the Addis Ababa stadium.
As if this was not enough, they also dropped points in the middle of the week when they faced Adama City in Nazareth. This means they dropped 7 points in the span 7 days. At that time their fans expressed frustration when they dropped two points in Adama. To make matters worse they added defeat in their package. Now they have 26 points from 15 games and stood third in the line up. Coffee had similar travel story. They were in the lead for long. Then they started conceding defeat after defeat.
That forced them to concede the driving seat to their rivals. The frustration of their fans led to the resignation of the club chairman Fekade Mamo. Oddly enough Fekade Mamo was reinstated to his board chairmanship position in a short span of time but the club standing remain unchanged.
Here it is natural to ask what happened to the giants of Addis. Both St. George and Coffee enjoy the support of thousands of dedicated fans. Both have foreign coaches and both have expensive international players in their squad but this time both are not able to deliver. This shows that it is difficult to get ready made answer for this sudden decline but it opened the door for Mekele. For Mekele the remaining one game against Jima Abajifar is exceptionally important.
Their current coach Gebremedhin Haile was in charge of Jima Abajifar when they took title last season. It was the first time when a new comer to be champions in the league’s 22 years history. Jimma joined the league last year. This will be the second big attempt to eye for title for Coach Gebremedhin Haile in two seasons. The last year achievement was indeed phenomenal. If Gebre gets that kind of surprising win, it will be a big addition to his coaching career.
His move from Jimma Abajifar to Mekele was not predicted in advance. What was expected was that he would guide his side in the African Champions League. Instead the former St. George and national team top striker Gebre opted to join Mekele Saba Inderta. A win will give him a 5-point lead. The defending champions are still fighting to improve their positions. A win against Mekele will have two impacts on the season’s competition. One it will hinder Mekele from extending their lead by five points. Plus it will make the contest an open end.
But Jima finished a goalless tie against Fasil City on Sunday. That result spoiled their chance to close in on the gap with top three sides. At the end of the first round Dedebit are the bottom side on 4 points from 16 games. With this trend the one time Ethiopian Premier League champions Dedebit are highly likely to relegate at the end of this season. Shire Sihul on 11 points from 15 games and South Police with 12 points by the same 15 games are 15th and 14th in the line up, in the order of that. Shire Sihul, South Police and Bahir Dar City joined the elite league at the start of this season. Only Bahir Dar City are faring well in competition.
The good part at this time is that in all parts of the country there has been no crowed disturbance in and around the stadium. To be precise, no crowed disturbance has been registered after the Hawassa City-St. George encounter here at the Addis Ababa stadium two months ago. As a result of that crowed disturbance the match was interrupted and played the next day in a closed stadium. One can conclude from this fact that that sharp and severe decision of the federation forced all club fans to go back to their senses and respect the fairplay rule in the wake of that incident.
Herald February 26/2019
BY SOLOMON BEKELE
