GRi Sports Ghana 23 - 08 - 2001
League association denies move to unseat ministry
Winneba (Central Region) 23 August 2001
Papa Owusu Ankomah, Minister of Youth and Sports, on Wednesday said he would study recommendations made by commissions of enquiry set up by the Ministry with a view to implementing them.
Speaking during a familiarization tour of the National Sports College at Winneba, he said he did not believe in covering up wrongdoings and neither would he be prejudicial in dealing with cases that come before him.
Papa Ankomah commended the high standards maintained at the College irrespective of budgetary constraints and said the tour has strengthened his belief that there was a future for sports in the country.
"To me, this College represents the future of sports development in the country which would be based on sound medium and long term plans to ensure that it is well equip with the requisite facilities."
He said after reading the country's sports policy, he realised that "we are far off from achieving the objectives set up by the policy and there is the need to reconsider it taking into consideration the hostile circumstances".
Papa Ankomah said under his administration focus would not be solely on football since that was one of the reasons why the country had not reaped the benefits of the lesser sports.
"For some of the lesser known sports to be developed to international standards, there is the need to establish links with countries that have specialised in those particular sports to benefit from their expertise."
He said sports could hold the key to the countries economic development but would need bold initiatives because without such, "we can go nowhere".
Mr George Dasoberi, Acting Director of the College, said despite financial, logistics and human resource constraints, it has lived up to its mission statement - the training and retraining of sports administrators and coaches, conduct research into sport and organise seminars and workshops.
He said the College currently has to rely on part-time lecturers from the University College of Education, Winneba and experts from international bodies to run most of it courses because there was a freeze on recruitment except for replacements.
Mr Dasoberi said the College was currently running tennis and soccer academies to introduce children to the concept of systematic progression in the development of both sports.
He said while the one on soccer was residential and involved 25 school children recruited from all over the country, the tennis was non-residential and involved children from Winneba and its surrounding towns.
The Minister visited the hostel and dining facilities, tennis courts, football fields and the main administration block of the College.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 23 August 2001
Mr Joseph Yaw Appiah, Chairman of the Ghana League Clubs Association (GHALCA), has described the first round of the Star premier league as "so far so good".
He said although the programme for the round suffered several jolts, the football authorities were able to overcome those difficulties and brought the it to a fairly successful end.
The most serious incident occurred on May 9 at the Accra Sports Stadium when police fired tear gas into irate fans causing the death of 126 people during a mid-week clash between Hearts and Kotoko.
The league was suspended for one month and a Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the incident.
That incident notwithstanding, Mr Appiah said attendance after the disaster, especially in Accra, shot up.
He noted that the standard of play has improved as compared to the previous two seasons, more goals were scored and expressed the hope that all things being equal, it could appreciate.
Mr Appiah and his colleagues on the GHALCA are meeting on Thursday to deliberate on how to have more say in the running of football in the country.
He said refereeing has not been bad and added that when motivated referees could do better.
The first round league officially ended a fortnight ago but three outstanding matches will be cleared on Sunday.
Hearts play host to Sekondi Hasaacas, Kotoko welcome Adansiman while King Faisal trek to Obuasi as guest of Goldfields.
Many connoisseurs of the game however, fear that the league could not meet its December deadline; and in order to keep the league on track, Ben Koufie, Chairman of the Ghana Football Association has instructed the head coach of the Black Stars not to invite more than two players from each club for national assignments.
According to the GFA's byelaws, a club would have its match declared outstanding if it has up to three or more players invited into any of the national teams.
Subsequently, Mr Koufie is scheduled to meet club chairmen on Thursday to find ways of having an uninterrupted second round league taking into account the Black Stars training programme for the Africa Cup of Nations in Mali next year.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 23 August 2001
The Ghana League Clubs Association (GHALCA) has denied an Accra bi-weekly sports paper news that it would start a process today to wrestle the nomination of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) management board chairman from the government.
In a story by the Ghanaian Times, GHALCA boss, Mr J.Y. Appiah, stated that there is nothing to that effect on the GHALCA’s quarterly meeting agenda scheduled for today at the GHALCA secretariat.
He said it is rather the GFA’s 36-man Executive Council that has that prerogative to take that action and not the GHALCA.
“What the GHALCA has lined up is the setting up of a three-man committee to take a look at our constitution and not the Executive Council,” he explained.
Mr Appiah said, Thursday’s meeting, which is routine is to seek the members’ approval for the three-man committee to start work.
GHALCA will also take a look at programmes lined up for the year, which include organising managerial course for its staff and coaching course for division one league clubs under its umbrella.
The GHALCA boss serving his second three-year term in office announced that the meeting will review the first round of the premier league.
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