Okay so last weekend I totally fell down this football data rabbit hole. Started super simple – wanted to see which Ghana teams were sweating bullets about dropping into a lower league this year. Figured it’d be quick, right? Look up some tables, done. Yeah… nope.
Where The Heck Do I Even Find This Stuff?
First wall I hit? Finding the raw, proper numbers. Seriously, felt like hunting for buried treasure. Went straight to Google like anyone would. Typed “Ghana Premier League standings 2023”. Got flooded with articles, some super old tables, lots of match reports. Cool stories, but not the cold, hard league table I craved. Annoying! Needed that official list of teams, their exact points, how many games played, wins, draws, losses – all that boring but crucial stuff.
Poked around a few fan forums next. Found chatter about teams near the bottom alright – names like “Oh yeah, Team X is in trouble!” or “Team Y needs a miracle!” – but no actual standings! Total tease. Then I remembered some local sports sites. Dug deeper, clicked through terrible navigation. Finally struck gold on this one site – maybe the league’s own? Not sure, but bam! There it was: the complete, final 2023 league table. Copied that sucker straight into a spreadsheet. Felt like a small victory.
The Data Was Messy & I Got Confused
Alright, data in hand. Now, just sort by points and see who’s at the bottom? Not so fast. Realized relegation isn’t always that dumb simple. Got confused fast. Questions popped up:
- How many teams actually go down? Is it the absolute bottom two? Three?
- What about tie-breakers? Like, if two teams end on the same points, who stays? Do they look at goal difference? Head-to-head? Something else?
- Heard weird rumors about licenses and stuff factoring in? Had to check if that was even true for Ghana. My head was spinning!
Went back to my sources. Took ages to piece it together. Scanned articles, forum threads, dug into league rules finally. Turned out for the 2023 season in Ghana:
- Three teams dropped down to Division One League.
- Points sorted you first.
- If tied on points, then Goal Difference (GD) mattered.
- Goals Scored came next if GD was equal.
No licenses messing with the bottom this year – just pure football results deciding who sank.
Crunched The Numbers & The Picture Got Clear
Okay, rules understood. Now, let Excel do its magic. Sorted my spreadsheet table carefully:
- First, by Points – low to high.
- Then, Goal Difference (also low to high).
- Then, Goals For (low to high, again).
Watched the bottom take shape. Those final matches must have been nail-biters for the fans down there! Focused in on the bottom five. It was super tight with just a few points separating them. One point, two points – that’s all it took to be safe or doomed.
Finally, it jumped out:
- Bottom Team: Desperately adrift. Points hopeless.
- Second Bottom: Just above, but points gap was still pretty big to safety.
- Third Bottom: Ah, right in the danger zone. Close to safety, but just slipped below the line.
- The Teams Just Above: Barely breathing easy. Literally one or two games made the difference.
Saw exactly how the goal differences played into it too. One team barely avoided the drop thanks to scoring a couple more goals than the guy below them, even on points. Wild!
The Lightbulb Moment (And My Screenshot Proof!)
Honestly? Took way longer than I thought. All this clicking, copying, double-checking rules, sorting, re-sorting. But when that final sorted table stared back at me, showing exactly why those bottom three ended up there, it clicked perfectly. Saw the points gap, saw how the tie-breakers kicked in, saw the sheer drama written in cold numbers. It wasn’t just “Team X relegated” – I understood how they got relegated and how close others came. Grabbed screenshots of my messy spreadsheet steps and especially that final, sorted table showing the relegation zone clearly defined. Posted that final screenshot as proof – felt like I earned that understanding the hard way! https://premier-league.cc/
