Ghanaian professional footballers asked to invest in sports
Aggrey
Memorial wins VALCO soccer
Accra (Greater Accra) 25 March 2002 - Kumasi Asante Kotoko, Ghana’s representative in this year’s CAF Cup Winners Cup became the only surviving Ghanaian side in Africa when they last Saturday cruised to the next stage of the competition on a 4-2 goal aggregate against Angola’s Athletico Sonangol Club.
Kotoko battled the Angolans to a 2-2 drawn game in the return leg encounter played at the Angolan coastal town of Namibi. Going into the game against a background of reported psychological harassment by the hosts, Kotoko did not appear deterred, having had a superior 2-0 goal advantage secured in their first-leg encounter at the Kumasi Stadium a fortnight ago.
And the Angolans, who had shown signs of toughness, indeed, almost caused an upset for the Porcupine Warriors, as they took the lead twice before Kotoko levelled up. Kotoko’s newfound, Nana Arhin Duah, put his name on the scoring sheet by cancelling the Angolans lead ten minutes after the Angolans had scored. Determined to win at home, Sonangol went ahead again in the second half, but a strike from Shilla Alhassan dashed the hopes of the Angolans of paying Kotoko back in their own coin.
The draw, which was greeted with joy as an away win by most Kotoko fans, sets the Fabulous side against another southern African side, Santos, from South Africa. Santos won against Mozambique’s Maxaquene on away goals as both teams finished the two-leg encounter 3-3.
In other Confederation of African Football (CAF) competitions, Obuasi Goldfields lost 1-2 and Accra Hearts of Oak took a 1-3 thrashing to be bundled out of the CAF Cup and Champions League respectively. Goldfields had an early lead as enterprising Tony Baffoe found the net in the very first minute. However, Satellites Club of Guinea, their opponents managed to scale over the early surprise with two well deserved finishes to bundle out the Ghanaians.
Hearts on the other hand went 3-0 down by the first 45 minutes of their game with Stade d’Malien until Charles Taylor managed a face-saving consolation for his side in the 81st minute. It is the second successive time that Hearts have been kicked out of the competition after they suffered a similar first round exit in last year’s edition.
GRi…/
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Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 25 March 2002 - A proposal has been made to Ghanaian professional footballers and athletes abroad to consider as a matter of necessity, pooling of their resources to establish a sports academy in the country.
Mr Opoku Agyemang Prempeh, Managing Director of Lakayana company, a building and civil engineering consortium, said it is only by investing in such a facility that Ghanaian professional footballers and athletes could convince Ghanaians about their genuine concern for sports development in the country.
Mr Prempeh spoke to the GNA in Kumasi on Saturday on strategies that could be adopted to complement government efforts at accelerating sports development in the country. He reminded the professionals that they achieved their present glory and positions through the assistance of the state, charitable individuals and groups and that it was only fair for them to reciprocate by creating such an academy to help develop the talents of others in the various components of sports.
Mr Prempeh regretted that even though there were many people endowed with talents in the various disciplines of sports, their potentials remain dormant and untapped just because they reside in remote and rural communities and have no support from any quarters. He said such a situation underscores why a sports academy should be established and used to identify promising young sports men and women especially in the rural communities and offer them the relevant theoretical and practical training so as to fully develop their potentials.
Mr Prempeh observed that most of the Ghanaian professional footballers and athletes outside the country earn huge sums of money but regrettably, they invest in ventures that bring direct benefits to them and their immediate families only to the neglect of the larger society. Mr Prempeh appealed to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to mount vigorous seminars to educate footballers on the need to always portray the Ghanaian culture in a positive light especially when on international assignments.
GRi…/
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March commissioners asked to present
accurate reports
Cape Coast (Central Region) 25 March 2002 - A one-day refresher course for forty match commissioner drawn from the Central Region ended at Cape Coast on Friday with a call on them to write correct match reports. The course, which was organised by the Regional Match Commissioners Association, was to update the knowledge of participants and prepare them for the forthcoming league season.
The participants were taken through topics like reports writing and the laws of the game. Mr Kofi Sam, secretary of the association appealed to the match commissioners to be fair when they are on the field to enable them to write genuine reports.
He asked them to learn the seventeen laws of the game and discharge their duties efficiently, adding that it is an offence for a match commissioner who is not officially appointed by the association to stand in a for colleagues during matches and asked them to desist from such practices. The participants commended the executives of the association for organising the course and asked that more of such courses should be organised on regular bases.
GRi…/
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Cape Coast (Central Region) 25 March 2002 - Defending VALCO Champions, Aggrey Memorial Zion Secondary School trounced Mfantsipim secondary school 3-0 in the inter schools and colleges VALCO soccer league match played at the Cape Coast Sport Stadium on Saturday.
From the blast of the referee's whistle, Mfantsipim started strongly and gave every indication that they were going to carry the day, but their hopes of beating the defending champions were shattered, when Aggrey scored two rapid goals through half back Francis Essibu and centre forward Jeremiah Ahin in the 10th and 15th minutes to end the first half.
On resumption, Mfantsipim made some changes to strengthen their attack but the changes did not deter Aggrey from increasing the tally to 3-0 through inside left Yusif Amarboi in the 65th minute. Mfantsipim forced the tide in their favour in the dying minutes and thrice came close to scoring but their forwards squandered the chances that came their way.
GRi…/
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