Assembly receives trophies for soccer promotion

Zambian Sex Workers pay for team's ouster from CAN 2000

South African cabinet gives full support to 2006 World Cup bid

Date for Africa Champs League out

South Africa relish prospect of hostile atmosphere 

Konongo (Ashanti), 5^th February 2000

A Paris-based Konongo citizen, Mr. Kwame Yeboah-Frimpong, has donated two trophies valued at over 2.5 million cedis to the Asante-Akim North District Assembly for football competitions in the area.

One of the trophies is to be given to the District Directorate of Education, to be competed for by the basic schools and the other is for the football teams in the district.

Making the presentation at an emergency meeting of the Assembly at Konongo on Thursday, Mr Yeboah-Frimpong expressed the hope that the gesture would inspire other citizens to contribute towards sports development in the area.

Receiving the trophies on behalf of the Assembly, Mr. Kwaku Kyei, District Chief Executive, said sports promotion occupied a key place in the Assembly's development agenda.

He said it was in the light of this that the Assembly is collaborating with the National Sports Council (NSC) to construct a stadium at Konongo.

Mr. John Yaw Agyare, a founding member of the Konongo Improvement Association, appealed to the Assembly to fence the land earmarked for the stadium to protect it from encroachers.

He expressed concern about the persistent attempts by some private estate developers to take part of the land.

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Lusaka (Zambia), 5^th February 2000

Irate soccer fans in Lusaka on Tuesday evening vented their anger on sex workers following Zambia's exit from the 22nd edition of the African Cup of Nations after a 2-2 draw with Senegal the same day.

According to the Thursday issue of the "Independent Post" newspaper, the angry fans pounced on sex workers who patronise Lusaka's Addis Ababa drive and Church roads.

The paper wrote that the fans, wielding sticks, stones and empty bottles, rounded up the sex workers whom they beat up, confiscated their handbags and chased them around.

One of the fans was quoted as claiming the sex workers were a source of bad luck and might have contributed to the poor performance by the national team at the nations cup, being co-hosted by Ghana and Nigeria.

The fans contended that the sex workers should have been indoors watching the Zambia-Senegal encounter instead of lining up the streets.

"These people are worse than the team's performance at the Africa Cup and we shall teach them a lesson. Not only do they spread diseases but they are a source of bad luck when such important tournaments are taking place," said one fan as he charged at a group of sex workers.

"We shall not leave until the streets are cleared of these prostitutes," another angry fan said.

Zambia crashed out of the 22nd Africa cup soccer championships on Tuesday after drawing with Senegal two-all.

Zambia had lost 0-2 in the opening encounter against Egypt, drew one-all against Burkina Faso.

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Cape Town (South Africa) 5^th February 2000

The chief executive officer of South Africa's bid committee for the 2006 Soccer World Cup on Wednesday told the South African Cabinet that he is extremely confident the country will be awarded the event.

Danny Jordan said South Africa is better prepared than the other African rival Morocco to host the prestigious event and he said he would be holding talks with the Moroccan government in an attempt to get the North African country to drop its plans to host the prestigious tournament.

He said South Africa had the infrastructure and experience and exceeded FIFA requirements to host the event.

He pointed out that South Africa had successfully hosted major international events, including the Rugby World Cup, the African Cup of Nations, the Non Aligned Movement conference and the All Africa Games, building up a wealth of experience in this area.

FIFA's technical evaluation team is due to visit South Africa next month and the host country for 2006 is to be announced in Zurich, Switzerland in July.

While South Africa's World Cup bid has cost the country about eight million dollars, if it was successful the games would inject at least 5 billion dollars into the country's economy, Jordan said.

The tournament had the capacity to create at least 129 000 jobs and contribute two percent to the Gross Domestic Product.

The Cabinet reiterated its full support to the Bid Committee and the government said it will offer any assistance possible to the South African Football Association during this visit.

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Accra (Greater Accra), 5^th February 2000

African champions Raja Casablanca will play Africa Sports of Cote d'Ivoire in this year's Africa Super Cup in Casablanca on March 5, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced in Accra, Ghana on Thursday.

The annual Super Cup match is played between the previous year' s winners of the Africa Champions League and the Africa Cup Winners' Cup.

Cote d'Ivoire's ASEC Abidjan won last year's Super Cup.

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Kumasi (Ashanti) 5^th February 2000

South Africa defender Mark Fish and his team mates are relishing the prospect of playing in front of a hostile capacity home crowd against co-hosts Ghana in Sunday's African Nations Cup quarter-final.

"There's nothing better than to play against a full crowd that is against us," said the English-based defender on Friday.

"It's a big challenge and it will only serve to spur us on."

A capacity 40,000 crowd is expected for the game, which will contrast with the low attendance that marked the opening round matches played in Kumasi.

"I hear the supporters in Kumasi are more passionate about the Ghanaian national team than those in Accra and we can't wait to take on the challenge," Fish said.

"It has happened to South African teams before in West Africa and we have come through with the win, so I don't see why not here."

South Africa coach Trott Moloto said on Friday that there were injury doubts about midfielder Eric Tinkler, who injured an ankle against Algeria on Wednesday.

But Fish, who is Tinkler's room mate at the tournament, said the Barnsley midfielder was confident of being fit for the quarter-final.

"If you look at the two previous Nations Cup tournaments, where we have reached the final, we have had to overcome really tough opposition in the quarter-final," said Fish.

"This is no different even if Ghana haven't played well here. I wasn't impressed with the little that I saw of them but I have learnt that tournaments like this only really start at the quarter-final stage.

"It will be a tough game but we have enough experience to get through," added Fish, playing in his third successive Nations Cup finals.

Sunday's meeting will be the fourth between Ghana and South Africa, with Bafana Bafana having won twice before and one game drawn.

South Africa go into the game with two wins and a draw at this Nations Cup finals, while Ghana just squeaked into the quarter-finals on goal difference with four points from their three opening round games.

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