GRi Sports Ghana 18 - 04 - 2001
Olympics aim at
top four spots - Coach
Soccer-Referees'
boycott of the league still looms
Olympics aim at
top four spots - Coach
Accra (Greater Accra) 18 April
2001
Coach John Eshun, the man at the
helm of Accra Great Olympics' revival campaign in the Star Premier League said
he is determined to guide the new look team, of mostly cadet players, to the
top four when the curtain falls in November.
In an interview with the GNA
Sports after his team had squeezed past Sekondi Hasaccas in the league opener
by a lone goal, the head coach said his bunch of untested players have the
ability to learn early enough to withstand the rigours of the premiership.
Describing his players as "a
team of youth, talent and hope", Mr Eshun said what remains for them to
peak are conditioning and finishing, which would be the immediate focus of his
training schedule.
"Our training was disrupted
by internal squabbles in the team and it affected the stamina of the lads and
this manifested in our performance in the second half," he said.
The coach said his attackers
missed many chances in the first half, which they dominated because most of
them were nervous in their premiership debut, while the few old players he used
were over anxious to score and end the trauma they had been through last
season.
Mr Eshun promised to transform the
fortunes of the club with good results and vault Olympics back to prominence as
the "third force of Ghana football."
He said though he was hired by the
ex president of the club, Ade Coker, he would not dabble into management
matters since he is a professional coach, whose priorities are the technical
and tactical excellence of the team.
The coach appealed to the fans of
the Wonder Club to rally behind it by attending matches in their numbers to
support the club and pep the boys up to achieve results .
"Olympics was once a crowd
drawer and I don't know why we should play a club like Hasaacas at an empty
stadium. We need the support and goodwill of our fans and we shall reward them
by ending the league among the top four", he concluded.
Great Olympics' preparations for
the league were thrown out of gear when a new management team led by Mr Richard
Solomon, an Accra legal practitioner seized power from the Mr Ade Coker, who
had been president of the club for the past five years, a fortnight to kick
off.
Mr Eshun said the old players who
had deserted the club in protest against Mr Coker's removal are coming back to
join their colleagues.
Under the circumstances, their
loyalty would, however, be in doubt but the coach said he would debrief them to
induce full commitment from those who would fit into his game plan.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com
Soccer-Referees'
boycott of the league still looms
Accra (Greater Accra) 18 April
2001
The threat to boycott this year's
Star Premier League by the Ghana Referees Association (RAG) still looms as they
are not satisfied with the recent upward adjustment of their fees.
A source close to the RAG said a
FIFA badge referee now receives 120, 000 cedis per match instead of 100,000
while a Class One referee's allowance has been raised from 92,000 cedis to 111,
000 cedis, an increment, which they said, is a far cry from their demands.
The referees seemed to be
infuriated by the consolidation of their transport allowance into the new
remuneration and are calling for its restoration.
The source said RAG is not
satisfied with the Professional League Board's (PLB) new proposal since it
makes the referees worse off when the recent increase in fuel prices has hiked
transport fares nation wide.
This is the second time that the
referees have threatened to down their whistles in a week, the first was just
before the start of the league but it took the timely intervention of the PLB
to nip the intended strike in the bud.
Meanwhile our source disclosed
that the Ghana Football Association (GFA) owns the RAG and the match
commissioners 18.7 million and 20 million cedis respectively for officiating in
last year's ABC FA cup matches.
This indebtedness, the source
said, should not have happened, since the FA cup is a sponsored tournament,
which sponsorship includes the cost of officiating.
It further casts doubts on the
commencement of this year's F.A Cup, which is scheduled to begin next month.
GRi…/
Send your comments to news@ghanareview.com