• Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko will face off in the 2026 Democracy Cup on Friday, August 28.

• The match will be played at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi at 4:00pm.

• The third edition is being held to commemorate 32 years of parliamentary democracy in Ghana.

The 2026 Democracy Cup is set to return with an Ashanti Region showdown as Hearts of Oak take on Asante Kotoko in the 3rd edition of the annual football event.

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The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has approved the match, which will be played on Friday, August 28, 2026, at 4:00pm at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi.

Ghana Premier League giants Accra Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko will contest the cup after both clubs agreed to participate.

As a curtain raiser, members of parliament will play against the Executive at 1pm. The fixture will add another chapter to one of Ghana football’s biggest rivalries, with the two clubs having already met in the first two editions of the Democracy Cup.

The 2026 game will take place at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi, a change from the Accra Sports Stadium, which hosted the inaugural edition in 2024.

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The match is part of activities marking 32 years of parliamentary democracy in Ghana. The Democracy Cup was introduced by Parliament in 2024 as part of celebrations marking 30 years of the Fourth Republic’s parliamentary democracy.

The competition was designed to use football to connect Parliament with citizens while promoting peace, unity and participation in the democratic process.

The first Democracy Cup was played in 2024, when Asante Kotoko defeated Hearts of Oak 2-1 at the Accra Sports Stadium to become the inaugural champions. In the 2025 edition, Accra Hearts of Oak beat Accra Great Olympics 1–0 to win the title.

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Parliament has continued to promote the competition as an annual event. In 2024, then-Speaker Alban Bagbin said the cup should be institutionalised and eventually rotated across different parts of the country.

The GFA said the match officials will be announced at a later date. As Hearts and Kotoko are meeting once again, the 2026 Democracy Cup will provide another major football occasion while Parliament continues to use the sport to celebrate Ghana’s democratic journey.