A widely attended church service, supervised by one of Ghana’s famous preachers, was held in the country on Sunday to celebrate English football club, Chelsea’s 2016/17 English Premier League title success.
The service which had a massive number in attendance and hosted by Rev. Dr. Ebenezer Markwei (an Arsenal fan) at the Living Streams International Church in Accra, was held with members dressed in their Chelsea jerseys while a cake was cut to celebrate the Stamford Bridge title.
Though the London-based club is kilometers away from the West African country, the fans of the club celebrated it gusto as the pastor preached the sermon under the theme ‘Learn to promote the success of others’.
The event, heavily publicized by another famous pastor, Rev. Azigiza Junior, who is an ardent Blues fan, saw supporters of some rival English sides also attending to hear the sermon.
Rev. Dr. Markwei told the title-starved fans of Arsenal and Manchester United who were in attendance that it is Godly to also celebrate the success of others.
“Fellowship with those who rejoice in your victory. They were 10th last year and we called them names thinking they can’t rise again but today here they are on top. With God nothing is impossible,” Rev. Markwei said in his sermon.
The exploits of former Chelsea stars Michael Essien and Marcel Desailly – both Ghanaians – have drawn a huge following for Chelsea in the West African country.
This results in massive rivalry between supporters of various English sides in the country with Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham having huge followers while West Ham has a growing fanbase because of their Ghanaian midfielder Andre Ayew.
So when the poster emerged few weeks ago over the pending church service, many thought it was meant to poke fun at supporters of their rival clubs.