Ali Jarrah not happy with Ghana Football Authorities
Africa Ladies golf championship in Cote D'Ivoire
Accra (Greater Accra) 18 February 2002 - Champion Club Accra Hearts Oak on Sunday beat city rivals Great Olympics 4-2 in a testimonial match in honour of three-time goal-king Ishmael Addo at the Accra Sports Stadium.
Hearts opened the floodgates in the 9th minute through Emmanuel Donkor when Don Bortey outwitted the entire rearguard of Olympics before laying a pass for him to score.
Laryea Kingston made it two in the 23rd minute when he initiated a move from midfield, laid the ball for Emmanuel Donkor, took a return, before tapping it in for the second goal.
Kingston went into a wild jubilation, celebrating the goal by striping almost naked and was shown the red card for his ungentlemanly conduct thereby reducing Hearts to ten men.
Olympics reduced the tally through Amui Quaye in the 55th minute but Charles Taylor made it three for his side in the 57th minute. Olympics pulled one back again in the 65th minute when Francis Mantey pounced on a loose ball after defensive blunder by Hearts and blasted the ball past stranded goalkeeper Laud Quartey.
Hearts made it four in the 90th minute through defender Dan Oppong when he headed the ball in from a corner kick. The match which, was supposed to be a send-off for the deadly striker however witnessed three red cards with Laryea Kingston and Charles Taylor receiving them on the Heart side, while Numo Mohamed of Olympics was also sent off in the 90th minute.
Ishmael Addo in whose honour the match was being played was not present at the stadium, having departed to France on Wednesday. He featured for his new club Bastia at the weekend, coming on as a substitute in the 79th minute.
In another friendly encounter at Sunyani, new entrants Brong Ahafo United lost by a lone goal to Obuasi Goldfields at the weekend. Striker Douda Seidu scored the only goal of the match in the 27th minute.
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 18 February 2002 - Poor officiating by FIFA referee Mike Amedior left a sour taste in the mouth of spectators in the Kofi Annan Cup match between city rivals Kumasi Asante Kotoko and King Faisal which ended 2-2 in Kumasi on Sunday.
Referee Amedior allowed the match to degenerate into a foul strewn game with players kicking legs instead of the ball and sometimes violently, in what could otherwise have been an excellent game. Supporters of both clubs did not hide their displeasure about the poor officiating and therefore poured scorn on the referee and his assistants at the end of the game.
The match had been instituted in honour of Mr Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General to raise funds for the development of Mfantsipim Secondary School, his alma mater and the Otumfuo Education Fund, a fund put in place by the Asantehene to aid deprived children in their quest for education.
After the inspection of the two teams by Oheneba Agyemang Atwereboanda, Hiahene who represented the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and Nana Sam Brew Butler, representing Mfantsipim Old Boys, Faisal kicked-off but quickly lost the ball to Kotoko who earned two corner-kicks in the fifth and seventh minutes but wasted them.
Kotoko were not to be denied a goal as they raced into an eighth minute lead through Joe Hendricks who headed home from Micheal Appiah's corner. Kotoko nearly increased the tally in the 15th minute but Micheal Osei missed narrowly with another header.
Faisal accepted the challenge and carried the game to Kotoko, building their attacks from the midfield and deservedly equalised in the 36th minute with a picturesque goal scored by Abubakar Yahuza from smallish Ben Wilson's through pass.
However, Kotoko restored their lead during injury time through Nana Arhin Duah who tapped in Micheal Osei's cross after a good run on the left to end the first half. Faisal redoubled their efforts and nearly equalised but Joe Agyemang who played a great game missed narrowly in the 52nd minute after Sam Thompson had put him through.
Ishaq Debrah headed cheekily past goalkeeper Osei Boateng five minutes later from a Joe Agyemang pullout. The replay has been tentatively fixed for February 28 during which a winner is expected to emerge by all means.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 18 February 2002 - Ali Jarrah, a former national under-17 goalkeeper, on Monday said he was saddened by the lack of support from officials of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) ever since he was hit by an inexplicable ailment nine years ago.
He told GNA Sports in an interview that both the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the GFA have failed to accord him any official assistance. Jarrah, a member of the silver medallist U-17 team in Japan in 1993 and once a prolific goalkeeper of Accra Hearts of Oak said, "I have come to believe that once one gets out of the limelight, his/her entire contribution, efforts and commitment are forgotten".
"I have not received any assistance from the GFA and the Ministry of Youth and Sports when treating an injury I sustained when serving my nation", the pale looking goalkeeper told the GNA.
Jarrah, now 25, who expressed disappointment over the treatment being meted out to him by the soccer authorities has vowed never to allow any of his two sons to play football, let alone don the national jersey. He said he has been using the Accra Stadium May 9 disaster as a decoy to discourage the children from loving soccer.
Goalkeeper Jarrah was however grateful to individual Ghanaians who have made life a bit comfortable for him adding that life would have been a "hell" without the support from such people.
When quizzed whether soccer in Ghana is being run professionally, the player said, "Our football is being run semi-professionally especially in terms of player-club issues, player's salary and facilities".
He called on the football authorities to give a critical look at securing the future of players adding, "since a players' career could come under threat at any time, having an insurance cover will be a major boost". He expressed gratitude to his mother club, Accra Hearts of Oak, for giving him a monthly allowance of 350,000 cedis for his upkeep.
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“I’m happy with Black Stars performance” –
Sports Minister.
Accra (Greater Accra) 18 February 2002 - The Minister for Youth and Sports, Hon. Edward Osei Kwaku, has expressed surprise at those who have expressed indignation at the performance of the Black Stars at the African Nations Cup in Mali 2002.
“What is there to be ashamed of?” sports bi-weekly Africa Sports quoted him as saying to Yaw Ampofo-Ankrah who had gone over to seek his views on Mali 2002.
“Since 1992, the Black Stars’ best has been the quarterfinals. When we hosted the Nations Cup at our own backyard two years ago, our best was the quarterfinals. So why are we suddenly behaving as though CAN 2002 was such a major flop?” the minister wondered. He said his ministry would study the report of the FA and make the appropriate recommendations.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 18 February 2002 - The Chairman of the Board of Director of Accra Hearts Sporting Club Ltd, Mr Ato Ahwoi, has indicated that he will not seek a fresh mandate as the board chairman once the club goes to congress. It is still unclear when the club will go to congress, as certain legal matters would first have to be sorted out.
But Mr Ahwoi stressed in an interview with his radio station Radio Gold monitored by sports bi-weekly Africa Sports that he believed Hearts needed an injection of fresh ideas to meet the requirement of the 21st century.
“Having been in office for the last five years or so I believe we must be running out of ideas. Football is a dynamic game and Hearts in particular is becoming bigger and bigger. It is time to inject some fresh ideas and some dynamism”, Mr Ahwoi said.
Asked whether youngsters like Kojo Twum-Boafo, Neil Armstrong, Fiifi Forson or Ato Quagraine would occupy the vacant position of the chief executive, Mr Ahwoi said these are not the only young ones in Hearts.
From Tamale, Kumasi, Sunyani and Accra, there are lots of young men desirous of taking up the mantle. We shall consider all the applications and settle for the best, he explained. Mr Ahwoi further stressed that the new chief executive would have to do the job on full-time basis and explore avenues to generate revenue for the club.
“Kotoko and Hearts should generate their own funds and not rely on individuals to fund them. That is what we are stressing, hence the need to employ somebody on full-time basis. The board will only be responsible for policy direction and general supervision,” he said.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 18 February 2002 - Small clubs in the Star Premier League have been urged to be grateful to the two big clubs, Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko for accepting the 'home team take all' policy.
Mr Kwame Ntow-Faiko, Accra representative of Brong Ahafo (BA) United told the GNA Sports that the big clubs have been very benevolent in allowing the passage of such a policy as it presents the smaller clubs an opportunity to make something substantial from the gate as compared to the former system.
He said, what the small clubs should do is to look for ways to entice more fans to watch their matches as the bigger ones like Kotoko have been advertising their matches on television instead of trying to fight a system that is rather in their favour.
"When B.A United comes to Accra, everybody knows that almost all the supporters who enter the stadium are mostly Hearts supporters. So what justifications have we to demand a part of gate proceeds since we know the supporters were not ours? "But when Hearts come to Sunyani, they would bring along a large travelling support, to the extent that sometimes, they outnumber the home support but they have gone ahead to agree to go home empty handed and for that the smaller clubs should be grateful."
He said formally, most of the smaller clubs were not making anything substantial at the gate but since the introduction of the policy, BA United is able to net to the tune of 15 or 16 million cedis when they play against Hearts and Kotoko, far in excess of what they made formally in similar matches both at home and away combined.
Mr Ntow-Faiko said the impression being created that because the big clubs use bigger government owned stadiums hence make money at their expense is erroneous since other clubs like King Faisal and Liberty Professionals use the same facilities and yet do not gross a fraction of what they do.
He said since 1961that B A United has been in and out of the premiership, it has not been able take home anything substantial from the Accra Sports Stadium league matches. He cited examples of matches they played against Olympics and Liberty in the 2000 league during which they were given 31,000 and 17000 as their share of the gate.
Mr Ntow-Faiko said the highest revenue BA made was against Hearts but he was not specific on the figure, adding that it was not more than four million cedis but with this system that home teams take everything, vigilance at the gates has also been stepped up and that is another plus for the system.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 18 February 2002 - The All Africa Ladies Challenge Golf Championship tees off at the Ivoire Golf Course in Abidjan, Cote D'Ivoire, from Friday, 2 - 4 May 2002.
Mrs Elizabeth Ezan, Vice President of the Ghana Ladies Golf Union who announced this in Accra on Monday, said 15 countries are taking part in the three-day event, which is being sponsored by St. Andrew Golf Club of Scotland, the World's golf governing body.
She named some of the countries taking part as Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Togo, Cote D'Ivoire, Uganda, Benin, Senegal and Ghana. Mona Captan, Rose Khalil both of Achimota Golf Club and Valentine Manteaw of the Tema Country Golf Club are representing Ghana in the tournament, which is aimed at promoting Ladies golf and to foster friendship among the participating countries.
Twenty Ladies and 20 men participants would play in the supporting bout, which include delegates from the United Kingdom. Mrs Ezan said the Ghanaian team would strive to make the nation proud. Ghana would host the next edition in 2004.
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