Williams mother arrives in Ghana on Monday
Accra (Greater Accra) 16 July 2002 - A four-member delegation, led by Mrs Oracene Williams, mother of Serena and Venus Williams, the current two world leading ladies tennis players would on Monday begin a six-day tour of Ghana.
The visit is to identify projects the tennis stars would like to support during their planned visit of the country next December. Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that while in the country, the delegation would visit women and children's project sites and call on the Greater Accra Regional Minister and other selected ministers of state.
The Williams sisters would be visiting some African countries, including Ghana, next December. The visit would focus on women, children, girls' education and HIV/AIDS. While in the country, the tennis stars would assist in the socio-economic development of the country and participate in a tennis clinic.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 July 2002 - Ghana's number two seed Henry Adjei-Darko, who was reported to have been playing a hide and seek with the Tennis authorities prior to the Davis Cup tournament, which ended on Sunday has said his action was as a result of poor treatment and the lack of motivation.
He told the GNA Sports in an interview on Sunday after Ghana's 4-1 victory over Armenia in the Euro Africa Zone Two play-off at the Accra Sports Stadium that, ever since he started playing for the nation a couple of years ago, officials have always promised the team of training allowance but this never materialised.
"I'm told the money is approved at the ministry of finance, but when it gets to the Ministry of Youth and Sports nothing is heard of it", the 19-year old player said.
Adjei-Darko cited an instance before the Golden Rackets left the country for Slovenia for the Euro Africa Zone II match in May. He said his father single handily catered for his transport from East Legon to the Accra Lawn Tennis club each day plus other miscellaneous expenses just to keep him in shape for the tournament.
"The only thing I remember the Ghana Tennis Association (GTA) did was taking us to the Stadium canteen for ˘10,000 worth of food daily," the player complained. Adjei-Darko, who had just finished an ITF scholarship programme in Kenya and was preparing to leave for Spain for a similar programme, wondered why they were paid a higher fee whiles in Zone three and less in Zone two which was more lucrative.
The player said, he remembered vividly after a Zone III tournament, that each player took home $2,800. Ironically, the player said each member of the Ghanaian team was given $1,700 after playing in the Zone Two tournament in Slovenia. "These monies are even not enough because we have to spend a lot more in our tours to improve on our individual rankings," Adjei-Darko said.
What perhaps broke the camel's back was when the Rackets returned from Slovenia. Adjei-Darko told the GNA that he secured scholarship for one month but instead of the GTA working out his visa to enable him travel on schedule, they abandoned him. "My father had to leave his job to ensure that I got my visa. The most annoying aspect was that, my father had to pay for the visa fee himself, which is not the practice," the player complained.
It took the intervention of Edward Osei-Kwaku and other top brass in tennis to lure the boy to play for the nation. And when he finally did, Adjei-Darko won the opening singles match on Friday against Tsolak Gevorgyan 6-3, 7-6(7-2), 6-3 and partnered number one seed Gunther Darkey to win the doubles on Saturday 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 July 2002 - The Ghana Football Association (GFA) would launch its Five-year Youth Development Plan in the Northern Regional capital, Tamale on Saturday 17 August 2002.
Speaking at a meeting with the Ghana Soccer Coaches Association (GHASOCA) in Accra on Monday, Mr Ben Koufie, chairman of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) said there would be series of courses for all stakeholders in football across the country.
He said "immediately after the launching, there would be basic courses for coaches through out the country to train them for the implementation of the project." The chairman said two coaches would be selected from each of the ten regions of the country to take part in the course in addition to teachers, retired footballers and personnel from the security services.
Mr Koufie said coaches would be taken through new developments in football as well as the ethics of the profession, but warned that, "coaches who would be found guilty of taking bribes from parents, players and club officials would be seriously dealt with."
He said referees would also be trained during the period since "poor officiating has been the bane of the country's football." The chairman said as part of the project, all Regional Football Associations would be re-enforced and well equipped with communication facilities to keep proper records on players, especially, the under-aged ones.
"This will ensure that players do not falsify their ages in order to gain entry into the junior teams," Mr Koufie added. He said in order to unearth more talents, schools of excellence would be organised during holidays in Accra, Winneba, Kumasi and other parts of the country.
Mr Koufie said graduates of such schools would enrich the local league with a lot of talents and the problem of the premier league being one sided would be avoided. The chairman said the FIFA Development Fund is meant to groom talent and the supporting staff and the money would be used for that purpose. He expressed the hope that the projects would attract sponsorship in due course.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 July 2002 - James Yalley, Chairman of Sports Supporters Association was on Monday remanded in prison custody by a tribunal in Accra for defrauding three businessmen of 52 million cedis under the pretext of securing them visas to Spain to watch the World Club Championship tournament.
Remanding Yalley, the tribunal, chaired by Mr Ziblim Imoru said from the facts read and the circumstance of the case, it was afraid the accused might not appear to stand trial. Yalley, charged with defrauding under false pretences and issuing false cheques has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to reappear on 23 July.
Prosecuting, Assistant Superintendent of Police, Mr Joseph Abraham said somewhere in May last year, Kofi Mensah, Alex Ofori and William Ofori Attah saw Yalley on a sports programme on television, saying that he was sending some football supporters to Spain to watch the World Club Championship, in which Accra Hearts of Oak was taking part. Yalley then asked interested viewers to contact him.
The three complainants paid various sums of money amounting to ˘52.72 million cedis to Yalley. Yalley, after collecting the monies went into hiding. The Police during their investigations arrested Yalley at a funeral at Elmina, in the Central Region.
He admitted collecting the monies and issued a post dated cheque of ˘20 million on 31 October last year, to be cashed on 14 November that same year at the Dansoman branch of the Agricultural Development Bank as part payment. The cheque was dishonoured.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 July 2002 - The fourth annual Ghana Golf Association (GGA)) Seniors championship tees off at the Celebrity Golf Course at Sakumono, near Tema on Saturday, August 3 and ends on Sunday 4 August.
Professor Michael Ben-George, President of the GGA who announced this in Accra on Monday, said the two-day competition, which is open to senior members of the association aged 55 years and above is expected to attract over 200 participants. He said this year's event is being sponsored by the GGA and has received the highest entry because of the adequate preparation that had been made by the association.
Mary Asafu-Adjaye, who is establishing herself as the lady golfer of the moment, Mona Captan and Fransica Vandyck, all of Achimota Golf Club, had registered in the Ladies section. The Tema team, which will be led by their captain, John Cobbina, include Felix Owusu-Adjapong while Florence Etwi-Barima leads the pack in the Ladies category. Government officials as well as members of the diplomatic corpse are expected to grace the occasion.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 16 July 2002 - The national Under-20 team, the Black Satellites are set to embark on yet another adventurous journey in search of honours on the international soccer landscape this weekend. Come Saturday at the Kumasi Stadium, the Satellites will engage Guinea Bissau in the first leg of their One-sixteenth African Youth Championship qualifier.
The Ghanaian team has not had the best of preparations needed for such international competitions but it is hopeful that the U-20 side would rise to the occasion against all odds. If for nothing at all, the present squad are expected to take inspiration from the success story of their predecessors in the Africa and World Championships where they ended up as runners up on both occasions, last year.
Apart from their level of preparations, the FA’s recent technical reshuffles, which resulted in the substitution of their former headcoach Isaac Paha by coach A.K. Adusei barely three weeks to this crucial match did not help matter either. In such a delicate situation, the focus will certainly be on the new helmsman to apply his rich experience to salvage the team from elimination.
It was therefore little surprise when coach Adusei expelled 10 players from the 25-man squad immediately after their 2-0 loss to Great Olympics in a friendly match at Legon last Friday. And to supplement the current 15 players in camp, he intimated falling on the services of Germany-based Gardo Mohammed, Massaudu Mumuni (Maxbees), Francis Mantey (Olympics) and goalkeeper George Amponsah of Power FC.
Together with players like Ernest Papa Arko, Lawrence Awuley Quaye, Quartelai Quartey, Bawa Mohammed, Isaac Amoako, Samuel Cudjoe, Saliu Muntari, Daniel Coleman and others, coach Adusei will hope to clear this first hurdle. At least, all that Ghanaians need is a good home win to render the return leg to be honoured in three weeks time in Bissau less arduous.
The two countries interestingly have something in common in terms of qualification to this stage as they did so without kicking a ball. While Ghana was seeded in the preliminaries, Guinea Bissau advanced following the withdrawal of Liberia. Thus with the scanty idea about their West African neighbours, the Satellites cannot afford to take chances but bury their opponents in an avalanche of goals.
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