I have known Mr. Jones Alhassan Abu for much of his life, from his days in Tamale Secondary school in the 1970’s when I was a tutor through to his final days as he breathed his last.
As a student of English literature Jones was clearly brilliant and in his own class. No wonder he proceeded to the university of Ghana, Legon as a Major in English. I must say perhaps there was more to Jones about languages because he picked up French in the course of football activities in francophone countries and became very proficient.
Jones came into football at a serious level as Accra representative of RTU. Those who remember him in the formative years know him as an outstanding representative who was fair and balanced perhaps to a fault. He took advantage of the opportunity granted to understand football and its rules, statutes and applications to their elastic limits.
Jones was a regular contributor at every GFA congress from his early stint in the 1980s as a member of Awuah Nyameche’s GFA serving with stalwarts Abra Appiah Prof Kofi Kumado and the rest.
Jones had served in many WAFU /CAF/FIFA programmes and tournaments; sometimes with me. On all those occasions he never failed to impress. He shone with his exceptional diction and quality thoughts. Jones never stepped in any law class room yet his depth of football knowledge stood him out as a football legal luminary of no mean accolades. His performances at the standards of the highest levels of football arbitration are very much in the records of CAS.
Jones regularly served on several GFA Committees. The last of them being the Black Stars management committee and the Division one league board. No doubt his performance on these Committees cannot be begrudged in any shape or form.
The last of his duties in the service of football took him to Abidjan for the WAFU ZONE B women football with Hassacas Ladies. Jones helped his bosom friend Nanabeyin and his troupe to annex the diadem, but he never joined the celebration in Ghana.
This was a great football guru of no mean standing.
I made the last phone call to him a few hours to his departure from this world and while I was actively asking about his condition of health, he was actively gearing the conversation to football. What a football addict! As Mr Herbert Mensah said in a tribute to me, “Jones was never really given his due in football as a great performer”.
Here was a great football philosopher. Whence comes another?
By: Sey Mubarick
