Taxi driver wins Republic Day draughts competition
Accra (Greater Accra) 05 July 2002 - Black Stars new coach, Milan Zivadinovic, says he is free to opt out of his contract with the Ghana Football Association (GFA) if within six months, he finds the working conditions unsuitable.
In an interview with the Graphic Sports during the week, the Yugoslav coach explained that there is a clause in his contract that enables either himself or the GFA, to terminate the contract if either party is not satisfied with the progress made after six months.
He outlined certain conditions that he expects to be met if the national team is to develop under his guidance and focused heavily on the need for cooperation among all the stakeholders in Ghana football. “At the moment, the President (Ben Koufie) and I are working in perfect harmony but Ghanaian football is not just me and him, it also includes clubs, players, coaches, press and the fans. All these constituents must work together to form a strong team, if I don’t see this cooperation after six months, I will opt out of the contract.”
As a result, he says, he has set out a definitive prerequisite if his stay in this country is to extend beyond the initial six months of his contract. Early signs, he insisted, are positive, stating that “we currently have a strong team, it is a good start.”
In pursuit of his team-building agenda, the coach will begin a 15-day European tour on Sunday to meet a number of Ghanaian internationals playing abroad. The schedule, confirmed by a member of his management team, incorporates visits to Greece, Germany, Holland and Turkey and is seen by Mr Zivadinovic as an opportunity to continue his programme of player assessment and to organise a series of friendly matches, with the Greek national team top on the list.
It is clear that a wide range of players will be tried and tested over the coming months in order for the coach to gain a thorough understanding of the talent at his disposal and the arrangement of friendly matches is seen as an essential part of this process. In addition to his European trip, a sequence of training camps have been scheduled, the first of which has been in progress this week and featured a selection of locally based players.
On return from the overseas tour, a second camp, also consisting of home-based players, will take place on 3 August. A final camp will then be held for the foreign-based players later. From these sessions, the squad will take shape in preparation for the African Nations Cup qualifying match against Uganda on 8 September and the Olympic Under-23 team, who have a match scheduled for 22 September.
Reassuring, his blueprint for the future focused considerably on the progress he believes can be made with the present crop of Ghana football talent. Despite the 2-0 defeat in a recent friendly against Slovenia he declared himself “very satisfied with the players,” although he clearly acknowledged the work that needs to be done.
“Ghanaian players are good for the future, they have talent but the problem is that they don’t have professional conditions, they often play like they would in the street. My goal is to bring more professionalism to the players’ approach to the game, this involves conditioning the players with good training involving exercises, tactics and a high level of discipline.”
Mr Zivadinovic pointed to the high profile success of Dutchman Gus Hiddink, who preached similar principles to the footballers of South Korea, as a recent justification of this philosophy. He re-emphasised the need for discipline as a fundamental issue and went on to say, “talent is only 10 per cent, hard work and discipline make up the other 90 per cent. Without work there is nothing.”
The new boss, who officially began work on 7 June 2002 also took a firm stance over the issue of favouritism stating explicitly that there would be “no preferences to players playing inside or outside of Ghana.” The guarantee that players plying their trade in the national league will be considered on the same level as those playing in Europe is undoubtedly a boost to the domestic scene.
Part of the Yugoslav’s job description revolves around the running of the Olympic Under-23 team and when Graphic Sports asked side for the senior squad, the response was a clear indication of his plans: “there will not be much mixing between the Olympic team and the senior team; we will build two strong separate squads.”
His proposals include selecting 10 or 11 players aged 20-21 and eight or nine older players to complete a full squad. Following the Stars’ good performance against Slovenia he also declared that there were “nine or 10 players from the Slovenia game that will form part of the Olympic squad.”
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 05 July 2002 - Nestle Ghana Limited is to commit ¢742 million to the sponsorship of this year's Milo Marathon, which is slated for 21 September. The amount, which is 15 per cent higher that what was spent last year, is to cover the organisation of the event in the Northern and Southern sectors of the country and the Accra Milo Marathon.
At the launch of this year's edition in Accra on Thursday, Mr Collins Taylor, Marketing Manager of Nestle said the winners of this year's Accra Milo Marathon in the mass sports category for both men and women would gain immediate entry into the Amsterdam Marathon in October and they would be flown to Holland by KLM.
In addition, Milo would provide the winners with $1,000 spending money, Milo products and promotional items. Mr Taylor said winners in the junior division would receive ¢600,000 scholarship bursaries, Milo products, exercise books, trophies and certificates of participation.
This year's event, which is the 16th since the competition was introduced in 1986, would be held in the junior and senior categories in the northern and southern sectors of the country before the main one in Accra in September.
The Marketing Manager said the southern sector junior marathon would start on 27 July in the Volta Regional capital, Ho, with participants from Eastern, Western, Central and Greater Accra Regions, while the northern sector event, slated for Bolgatanga on 24 August, would involve athletes from Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Upper East and Upper West regions.
He said first three in both the girls and boys divisions would be sponsored to participate in the main event in September. There would also be a competition in the under 15 category which would start from the Kaneshie Sports Complex through its traditional routes and end at Dansoman Keep Fit Club.
Mr Taylor said the senior's event would start from The Point at Nungua Barrier and end at the Dansoman Keep Fit Club as well. The Marketing Manager said distances to be covered are 15 kilometres and 42.2 kilometres for the junior and the senior events respectively.
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Techiman (Greater Accra) 05 July 2002 - Kwaku Asiedu, alias Agya Peter, 31, a driver from Akumadan in the Ashanti Region, thrashed Emmanuel Anguah, 38, a welder from Sunyani 5-1 in a draught competition held in Techiman on Monday to mark the 42nd anniversary Republic Day celebration in the Techiman District.
It was jointly organised by Classic F.M. Radio station of Techiman and Musco Asante Enterprise, a local trading company. For his prize, Agya Peter received two Classic FM stickers, a T-shirt and ¢200,000 while Emmanuel Anguah had a T-shirt, two classic stickers and ¢100,000.
Kwadwo Darko, 32, a trader from Tanoso in Brong Ahafo placed third, having beaten Kwaku Kwarteng, a 26-year old farmer from Akumadan 3-2. They received ¢70,000 and ¢50,000 respectively in addition to two stickers and a T-shirts.
Mr Fred Zeini, director of Classic FM, congratulated the award winners and encouraged them not only to take interest in such competitions but also to educate others on the importance of such activities. Mr Zeini said Classic FM had lined up competitions in oware, ludo and bicycle racing.
GRi…/
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