Mixed reactions greet Hayatou's FIFA ambition
Wa (Upper West) 22 March 2002 - Mr Isaac Paha, coach of the national Under-20, 23 soccer teams has embarked on a nation-wide exercise to hunt for talented young footballers for the under-20 national soccer teams. The hunt which takes the form of gala competitions would afford young players the opportunity to be selected to form the nucleus of the under 17 and under-20 national teams.
Briefing the Ghana News Agency before the exercise took off at Wa on Thursday, Mr Paha said the programme started at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region where five players were selected.
“I was marvelled at the level of talents displayed in Bolga and I believe this would be replicated in the whole northern region", he observed. Mr Paha said they had decided to adopt this new approach of looking for players for the national youth soccer teams because the football authorities were convinced that many young talented players are hiding in the rural areas.
"It is our hope that through this exercise, the regions would also become our partners in the national teams building programme", he noted. According to the coach, the exercise would take 22 days and by the end of the period, the players that would be selected countrywide would be good enough to raise the image of Ghana's soccer at the international level. He said the need to carry the programme to the regions has been necessitated by the desire to select the right players and erode the perception of over-aged players constituting our youth teams.
"The perception that players of our youth teams have biological ages and soccer ages should be a thing of the past." He said, he would demand genuine birth certificates of all players who would be selected in addition to rigorous medical checks by medical experts even though, "it is often difficult to determine ages of people through this method". Mr Paha, however, expressed the hope that the players would be honest enough to give their right ages, since anything contrary to that would not help their development in the game.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 22 March 2002 - The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has taken steps to reduce protests and eliminate litigation, particularly over the status of players during the incoming season. Consequently, the football house in conjunction with the Premier League Board (PLB) has sent special forms to all premier league clubs to indicate the movement of players to and from their clubs before and during the season.
Mr Kwaku Ampim-Darko, Deputy General Secretary (Technical) of the GFA told the GNA Sports that the move is to bring sanity into the movement of players and prevent the tagging which had been associated with the status of players. He said after the forms have been filled and returned to the GFA they would be circulated to all premier league clubs for study and scrutiny and players whose registration would be queried would not be fielded by any club until the protests have been dealt with conclusively by a committee.
The deputy general secretary said the period to file protests by aggrieved clubs would be 10 days from the date of publication of the list of players and those who attract no queries or protests would be deemed qualified to play for their clubs. The GFA will not entertain any protests from clubs concerning such players.
He said the same rules would apply to players who would move from one club to another during the course of the league, adding that the Football Association would request the Disciplinary Committee to adjudicate on protests weekly so as to avoid the piling up of cases.
Mr Ampim-Darko said cautions to players would be communicated to their clubs every week to make them aware of the legibility or otherwise of their players for impending matches.
Commenting on the guidelines to the clubs and the initiative taken by the GFA, Mr Ernest Thompson, Board Secretary of Accra Hearts of Oak said the action is in the right direction but pointed out that the initiative might not stall protests since the statutes have not been changed in that direction. He suggested that the GFA should add a proviso to their rules as they stand now to illegalise court actions in order to protect the league from unnecessary litigation and to ensure a smooth and unhindered soccer calendar.
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Ho (Volta Region) 22 March 2002 - Mr Mawutor Goh, Ho district Chief Executive (DCE), on Wednesday advised players of Accra Hearts of Oak to combine discipline, determination and team work to enable them sail through to the next stage of the CAF Champions League competition with their Stade Malien counterparts in Mali.
He gave the advice when the assembly feted the team, which has been camping at Ho since last Thursday, under the auspices of chapter 41 supporters union of the club. Mr Goh told the players that individual skills could only pay-off when combined with team work, discipline and determination adding "with all these ingredients and luck on your side, the battle is already won."
He said footballers are now public officials and role models for the younger generation and, therefore, urged them to exhibit lifestyles that would impart positively on the youth. Mr Herbert Addo, Head coach of the club was optimistic that the team would demonstrate what Ghanaians have known the team for.
He said training has been receptive and hoped with the same attitude and zeal in Mali victory would not elude the team. Mr Kofi Anani, Vice-Chairman of Chapter 41 said the team has prepared physically, psychologically and spiritually and is battle ready for the Sunday encounter in Mali. Amankwah Mireku, on behalf of his colleagues thanked the District Assembly for their gesture and promised that the team would win the second leg match "as we did in 2000".
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Accra (Greater Accra) 22 March 2002 - There are mixed reactions on the candidature of Issa Hayatou, the longest serving President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) who announced he would challenge Sepp Blatter the sitting president for FIFA's plume job. In Accra, the general feeling is that Africa must support one of her citizens to sit over decision-making in world football but even those who clamour for a Hayatou victory are not sure if the 55 year-old Cameroonian has the ability and the structures to upstage Blatter.
Mr Emmanuel Asamoah Owusu Ansah, vice chairman of the Ghana Football Association told the GNA Sports that Hayatou's ambition is proper because it is fuelled by his ability to perform creditably as he has been doing at the helm of African football.
He said he would support the CAF president not because he is an African but because he "can exude the same brilliance that made him change the face of African football when he becomes FIFA president." "I do not support his candidature from an African point of view but his credentials and his achievements are enough to offer him a new challenge. "I believe Hayatou will be to world football what Kofi Annan is to world politics," Mr Owusu Ansah added.
Reacting to the timing of Hayatou's declaration which has come shortly after Mr Farrah Addo, his close friend and an influential member of CAF executive committee had disclosed that Blatter had bought African votes to win the elections four years ago, the Mr Owusu Ansah, a lawyer by profession, said he saw nothing wrong with it "provided Hayatou's candidature is within the time limit."
Lauding the Cameroonian for his achievements in football, Mr Owusu Ansah said Hayatou has managed to increase African's representation in the World Cup from two to three then to five and that he has redefined the African Champions' League and introduced money into it to make it more attractive and competitive. "We now have three continental club tournaments which are all very well patronised and these have resulted in the rise in the African game. He has also expanded the Cup of African Nations and this has offered many more countries the opportunity to participate in it.
"Issa has been a vice president of FIFA and this has prepared him for the big job and it is my belief that he would excel and shame his detractors." Asked if Hayatou has the numbers to beat Blatter, Mr Owusu Ansah said the Cameroonian could get majority of the votes from Europe because of his alliance with Lennart Johansson, UEFA president who has been very critical of the financial position of FIFA under Blatter. He said indications are that most Asian votes would also go to Hayatou as Chung Mong-Joon, the powerful South Korean president, has openly antagonised Blatter and would lobby most of his colleagues to vote for Hayatou.
However Mr Julius Osai, a veteran football administrator said it would be very difficult for Hayatou to beat Blatter at the polls. Analysing the chances of the CAF boss, Mr Osai said though Hayatou might have the support of the UEFA President and the Asian power broker, their alliance could not influence the generality of members of their various confederations. He said each association would weigh the pros and cons, consider the advantages and disadvantages before taking sides adding that, "there will be no popular movement but rather, a stringent voting pattern that would take into consideration the benefits derivable from the reign of either of the two candidates."
Mr Osai said nobody would be in a position to establish how far Blatter might have infiltrated into the ranks of the three confederations, which appear on paper to be behind Hayatou. He said with the multilingual endowment of Blatter, coupled with his excellent oratory ability, the race could go to the wire. Africa, Europe and Asia have between them 148 votes, enough to win the bid for Hayatou from a pool of 215 candidates who would be expected to elect the next FIFA president. There has not been any official statement from the GFA and it appears many other associations on the continent are hemmed in a pool of uncertainty and would not want to take sides openly.
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