GRi Sports Ghana 29 - 03 - 2001
Soccer-Satellites labours to reach finals in
Ethiopia
Soccer-GFA must be
independent of Sports Ministry - Baba
Soccer-Half a million-dollar for Ghanaians
to play in NFL
Soccer-Satellites labours to reach finals
in Ethiopia
Accra (Greater Accra) 29 March 2001
The Black Satellite laboured to reach the finals of the under-20 African Cup with a 6-5 nerve-racking penalty kicks victory over Egypt.
Ghana scored all the six kicks with skipper Addoquaye Pappoe scoring the sixth penalty in the sudden death.
The match saw life in the first half of extra time as the Ghanaians pushed forward. In the 95th minute Ibrahim Rasak was brought down in the penalty area for South African referee to award a penalty which Steven Tetteh converted.
The Satellites immediately pulled their legs off the accelerator and were punished when Gamal Hamza sneaked behind the Ghanaian defence to put the ball into the roof of the net for the equaliser.
The Satellites by the victory have qualified to play in the finals against Angola on Sunday April one.
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Soccer-GFA must
be independent of Sports Ministry - Baba
Accra (Greater Accra) 29 March
2001
Mr Benson T. Baba, President of
the Ghana Olympic Committee, said the Ghana Football Association (GFA) must be
granted full autonomy to move Ghana football forward.
Speaking to the GNA on Tuesday, Mr
Baba said if the GFA is divorced from the Ministry of Youth and Sports it will
be more responsive to challenges facing the development of the sport.
He said an autonomous GFA would be
able to adopt aggressive marking strategies to generate revenue to prosecute
its programmes instead of looking up to government to fund every little
competition.
The GOC president said
"football being the passion of the nation" should be managed to cater
for itself and make profit, which should be ploughed back into the provision of
facilities and the prosecution of youth programmes to lay a solid foundation
for development.
Mr Baba said it is common
knowledge that football takes the chunk of the Sports Ministry's budgetary
allocation thereby stifling the development of other disciplines, adding that
the trend must be checked to give the lesser sports a new lease.
He said the GFA could secure
sponsorship deals for the Black Stars and other national soccer teams to cover
their jerseys, kits and allowances as well as travel expenses.
To achieve this, Mr Baba said
multiple sponsors could be sought to identify with individual members of the
national teams while the GFA compensates the companies with regular publicity
and advertisements.
"We can take a cue from
Jamaica whose 1998 World Cup squad was sponsored by 22 corporate bodies, each
picking the bills of one player."
He said players' wages in the
local league have risen considerably in the last three years and wondered why
most clubs still play in the premier league with plain jerseys and thereby deny
themselves additional revenue.
"Branded jerseys generate a
lot of revenue for football clubs world wide and it is high time our clubs made
use of the opportunity," he said.
Mr Baba said the production and
sale of club souvenirs and other branded products must be controlled so that
revenue accruable from them goes to the clubs and not into the pockets of
individuals.
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Soccer-Half a million-dollar for Ghanaians
to play in NFL
Accra (Greater Accra) 29 March 2001
A three-member US-based coaches led ex-Nigerian Africa Cup of Nations winning player Johnny Orlando are in the country to explore talents in NFL for a half a million-dollar contract to play in American football League (NFL).
In an interview with the GNA Sports in Accra on Wednesday, Mr Alan Jeffers, Head of Soccer Excellence in US and a member of the team said interested persons would have to kick the oval-shaped NFL ball at least 65 yards at special exercise at the Hearts Park this Saturday.
He said at the moment there are only two players in the NFL who could kick the ball beyond 75 yards and added that since Ghanaians are very good at kicking soccer balls, they could get some talents here for the NFL.
Giving a background to the deal, Mr Jeffers said they met an agent on their way to Ghana who said he was interested in talents in Ghana.
He said those who would be able to kick the oval-shaped American football beyond the 65 yards mark would travel with the agent expected in the country later in the year to America for further trials.
The Saturday trials starts at 10 a.m.
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