Accra (Greater Accra) 08 July 2002 - Players of the national under-20 team, the Black Satellite were expected to report to camp on Sunday at the Winneba Sports College, to start preparation for their impending first African Youth Cup qualifier against Guinea Bissau on Saturday 20 July at the Kumasi Sports Stadium.
A statement signed by Mr Kofi Nsiah, General Secretary of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) said Premier League players who are also members of the team are also expected to report to the camp.
In a related development, the Management Committee of the Satellites would meet at the GFA Secretariat on Tuesday 9 July to discuss the preparations for the match. Coaches Edusei and Isaac Paha are requested to attend the meeting.
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Accra 08 July 2002 - The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has warned clubs to desist from dealing with Ghanaians who parade themselves as licensed FIFA player agents, since no Ghanaian resident has been granted a licence to operate as such.
A statement by Mr Kofi Nsiah, General Secretary of the GFA said it is forbidden to deal with unlicensed persons or agents and therefore advices all clubs not to deal with such persons. He said it had come to the notice of the association that a number of people were parading themselves in football circles as player agents or managers, while others were purported to be holding the players' "Card A."
Mr Nsaih said FIFA frowns on such acts and wished to draw the football fraternity's attention to the regulations governing the status and transfer of players. Act 14 of the regulation states that, "All contracts for transfer of players should be conducted by the two clubs and the player involved and not by any individuals."
Mr Nsaih said Act 15 also states, "that amount of compensation mentioned in Act 14 shall be agreed upon between a player and his former team or between a third party and the former club regarding the amount of compensation shall be disregarded."
He further quoted Act 18 of the FIFA Player's Agent and Match Agent regulations, "any club wishing to engage the services of a player shall negotiate only with the player himself or a player's agent licensed under the terms and conditions of the these regulations," to buttress his point.
Mr Nsaih said clubs that violate these laid down regulations may face sanctions spelt out under Act 19 which includes: reprimand or caution, suspension of all or parts of its management bodies, a fine and an interdiction to carry out national or international football activity. He said any person who wished to become a FIFA Licensed Player Agent should contact the GFA.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 July 2002 - Alex Ali Baba, Ghana's WBC rated super bantamweight made mince meat of his Congolese challenger, Frank Amisi when referee Godfred Cobblah stopped their 10 round challenge contest mid way through the second round.
The Congolese survived the first and gave a deceitful impression of a thrilling encounter as he connected some good punches and held his guard high even though Ali was a clear winner of the round. Amisi endured some hard knocks from the Ghanaian early in the second and landed a couple of fine shots too but fizzled out after a brief spell of infighting and pulled out of the contest, complaining of being thumbed in the eye by Baba.
Referee Cobblah tried to persuade him to continue the fight but the fighter from D.R. Congo refused and the fight was awarded in favour of Ali via a second round technical knockout. The much publicised, "Way of the Warriors" as the night was dubbed, which was put forward by Arthur Don Promotions turned out to be the "Way of the Cowards" as the other international contest on the bill did not go beyond four rounds.
Nigeria's super middleweight, Kazeem Adeleke withdrew at the end of the fourth round to concede a TKO to Charles "the Crusader" Adamu as his corner decided he had had enough and should live to fight another day. Adamu who did not look refined managed to overwhelm his opponent with brute strength as he thundered mercilessly at the midsection on the Nigerian who was in visible pain any time he took a punch.
On the few occasions that the Nigerian tried to fight back Adamu appeared inexperienced and confused but bullied his way through with his superior physique.
In other fights of the night, Isaac Sackey gained a split points decision over Sampson Tetteh in their six round welterweight fray, which, was indeed a debut professional engagement for both boxers. Alfred Tetteh won a third round TKO against Kofi Boateng in a scheduled eight round featherweight duel when the latter's corner decided to discontinue the fight which was nothing but one sided.
Badu Akuettey and Roland Mills shared honours in a super lightweight contest which many thought should have gone to Akuettey who was by far, the more aggressor and who had had more punches on target.
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Cape Coast (Central Region) 08 July 2002 - Apam Secondary School, beat defending champions, Mfantsipim School 3-0 to lift the trophy in the finals of the Fifth Central Regional Minister's soccer competition, played at the Cape Coast Stadium on Friday.
The competition was introduced five years ago as a means of generating more interest in the sports. Mr Muniru Arafat, Cape Coast Municipal Chief Executive presented the trophy and a cash prize to the school while the runners up Mfantsipim School also received a cash prize.
Apam started strongly from kick-off and opened the scoring as early as the second minute through outside left George Gyabaa, who sneaked through an off side trap set by the Mfantsipim defence to score the opener. Inspired by this goal, their forward line kept their opponents vital area boiling, and in the 34th minute, centre forward John Egyir connected a pass from the right flank to nod home the second goal.
After recess, the defending champions made some changes to revitalise the team but that did not deter their opponents from adding yet another goal through Joseph Binie, bringing the full time score to 3-0.
In an address read on his behalf, the Regional Minister, Mr Isaac Edumadze was happy that the enthusiasm shown by the Regional Co-ordinating Council over the years had enabled schools in the region to achieve a lot in terms of sports.
Notable among them he said, were the winning of over-all trophy at the National Schools and Colleges Sports festivals in 1997 and 1999 and the impressive performance of soccer teams from the Cape Coast Technical Institute, Aggrey Memorial and Apam Secondary Schools at the Milo and Valco competitions.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 July 2002 - A nine-member Table Tennis squad led by Mr Ebo Bartels, Chairman of the Ghana Table Tennis Association (GTTA), is scheduled to leave Accra on Friday night to participate in the 15th Africa Seniors Cup in Tunisia.
The squad is made up of six players - three each in the male and female division, two coaches and the Chairman of the Association. Vincent Arhin, Chief coach of the team named the players to the GNA Sports in Accra at the weekend as Solomon Akunor, Courage Nanevie and Joseph Adjei who are billed to contest in the male division while Esther Lamptey, Beatrice Gyasi and Afua Oforiwaa will vie for honours in the female division.
The weeklong competition, which starts on Monday, July 8 and ends on the 15th, involves 38 other African countries. The Ghana Olympic Committee is pre-financing the trip following a delay by the government to release the funds. Coach Arhin expressed the hope that the team would come back with medals adding, "We have prepared very well for the tournament." He said the players are in good shape and ready for the competition.
One of the players, Solomon Akunor, later told the GNA Sports that he has been waiting for this opportunity to prove a point in his chosen career. "I am going to put up an impressive performance to ensure that, I pick a medal for the nation", the former student of Aquinas Secondary School said. Akunor was optimistic that, he and his colleagues would make the nation proud by bringing home medals.
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