El Ahly were tactically superior and the plan to defend the 2-0 lead in Cairo punctuated with spasmodic bursts upfront, worked to perfection and it was no wonder that the Egyptians scored the curtain raiser.

Credit must however go to Coton for summoning enough courage to get the equalizer just before the recess. The away goal by El Ahly however meant Coton had to score four goals to win the trophy and they gave hopeful signals of achieving their aim when the second goal came quite early in the second half. The well built Coton players used their physique to advantage and fired bullet shots from all angles reminiscent of another famous Cameroonian Club Oryx ,that won the maiden Africa Clubs Championships in Ghana in 1965.

Pressure really mounted on El Ahly as Coton went on the rampage, but over anxiety robbed them of several scoring opportunities. It was at this stage that Al Ahly also showed their ability to absorb pressure and hit back at the least opportunity. It was one of this counter attacks that earned them a penalty to pull even.

Crest fallen Coton did not give up and fought bravely to at least preserve their six- year unbeaten home record.

This was a classic cup final by all standards, which showed that the standard of the game in Africa is moving forward.

The name D.G.Hathiramani is synonymous with the progress of table tennis in Ghana. Hathiramani was a naturalized Ghanaian of Indian origin, who single handedly produced more than 60% of Ghana’s table tennis stars spanning nearly four decades. Affectionately called “the table tennis servant of Ghana” he recruited youngsters with no table tennis background and trained them from scratch to become stars. He went to the extent of accommodating some of them, fed them and paid for their education.

The success of table tennis in Ghana so rested on “DG” that it was feared his absence in the future might spell the doom of the game in the country.

Those fears actually came to pass when after his death in the early eighties, the game began to slump in the country. A lot of effort was put up the sports authorities to keep the game afloat, but the need to get a Hathiramani to shoulder the burden of promoting a not too popular spectator sport in the country became a huge problem. There were a lot of trials and errors until about six years ago, when former national table tennis star Ebo Bartels accepted the responsibility of heading the table tennis association with a strong desire to bring back the good old days

A national champion in the seventies, Ebo Bartels is now a man of many parts. A former Air Force pilot, Ebo Bartels is a successful business executive and holds a degree in business administration. He is also a qualified lawyer.

His intrinsic interest in table tennis coupled with his acute business acumen and his capacity to establish useful contacts has helped him to lead the table tennis association into a strong unit with national recognition for unearthing talents.

The recent painstaking national exercise organized by the table tennis association to gather the best talents for the impending Africa Senior Table Tennis Championships in the Congo Republic, has won national approbation. It was a hectic examination involving the nation’s best 16 male players and the best eight females for the most outstanding four males and four females to represent Ghana in the championships

Appropriately dubbed “The D.G.Hathiramani Top 16” the two-day highly competitive trials picked Eric Agyemang of the Ghana Police Service, Derek Abrefa and Felix Lartey both from the Ghana Immigration Service and Bernard Joe Sam from the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) for the men’s division.

In the ladies category emerged Afua Oforiwa Owusu-Agyei of CEPS, Akosua Ketu from the Central Region, Beatrice Gyasi of the Ghana Police and Bernice Borquaye of the Ghana Navy.

It is noteworthy that the trials were sponsored by the Executors of D.G.Hathiramani’s Estate, Dr S.A.Quaye and Mr. Emmanuel Okai with support from Aqua-in Water Company and the Sports Council.

It is also significant that most of the players come from state institutions, which is a healthy signal that state institutions are once more prepared to help in the promotion of sports in the country.

Good luck to the team in their quest to gain honours for the country in the African championship and may the spirit of the late Hathiramani guide Ebo Bartels and his association members to keep the fire of table tennis and for that matter all the so called “lesser sports” burning

A lot of argument is going on in football circles as to the continued captainship of Stephen Appiah for the Black Stars. A school of thought is that Appiah’s inability to sign for a club may make him rusty and it does not make him an inspirer to lead the team.

The contrary view is that, once a good footballer he only needs a few workouts to get back to his old form and the lack of a club should not disqualify him from holding the leadership post.

What do you think my dear reader?

No matter the category, any football encounter between Ghana and Nigeria is regarded crucial and Sunday’s Africa Women’s Championships in Equatorial Guinea between the Black Queens of Ghana and Nigeria’s Super Falcons will be no exception. The exciting ingredient in this clash is Nigeria’s domination in women’s football on the continent and Ghana’s determination to halt the trend this time round. It will be tough.

Nigeria has routinely beaten Ghana in several cup finals including last year’s edition of the championship in Warri, Nigeria. In addition, it was the Falcons that halted the Queens ambition of qualifying for this year’s Beijing Olympics. There is therefore a strong desire on the part of Ghana to turn the tables this time. But it is not going to be easy.

This is the third time the two sides are meeting at the group stages that have seen Ghana having a slight edge, but in the end Nigeria have had the last laugh running away with the trophy on each occasion. In South Africa 2000, Ghana drew 1-1 with Nigeria in the group stages but Nigeria were the ultimate winners of the cup. In 2002, when Ghana defied Nigeria’s home advantage and won 1-0 at the group stage, Nigeria hit back gallantly and won the cup in the end.

However Coach Gamel Mumuni is confident that he has been able to psyche his players to remain focused and turn the scales this time. “We can’t continue playing second fiddle to Nigeria any time we clash. We have what it takes to beat them and we are bent on getting it right in our opening match”, he told reporters. The experts say champions die hard, so Ghana would have to really double her efforts to dethrone Nigeria from the top of women’s football in Africa. The two other nations Ghana’s groups are South Africa and Tunisia.

Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Mali and Congo comprise the other group for this eight nation tournament which will end on November 29 with the final in Malabo, capital city of Equatorial Guinea.

While the Black Queens are sorting themselves out in Equatorial Guinea, their male counterparts, the Black Stars, will also begin their series of friendlies to tune them up for the impending World Cup/ African Cup qualifying matches. On Wednesday, Nov 19, the Black Stars will meet Tunisia in a friendly match at the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in the capital. It is the first home encounter since the 3-0 demolition of Lesotho in the last qualifying match in the group stage of the World Cup/Africa Cup qualifiers in Sekondi on Oct 11. It was this victory that earned Ghana a place in the second phase of the qualifiers grouped together with Benin, Mali and Sudan.

New Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac has now had enough time to review his team and he has invited three top players who have not played for the Black Stars in recent times. Germany based defender Hans Adu Sarpei, Andre Ayew of French club Lorient and Birmingham City winger Quincy Owusu Abeyie have been invited alongside 17 others to prepare for the friendly against the North African ball jugglers.

The full list of the invited players are :
Goalkeepers;
Richard Kingston (Birmingham City, England)
George Owu (El Masry, Egypt)

Defenders;
John Paintsil (Fulham, England)
Hans Adu Sarpei(Bayer Leverkusen, Germany)
Samuel Inkoom(Asante Kotoko)
Jonathan Mensah(Free Stare Stars, South Africa)
Eric Addo(PSV Eindhoven,Holland)
Jonathan Quartey (Kaiser Chiefs, South Africa)

Midfielders; Daniel Yeboah( Lions)
Agyemang Badu(Asante Kotoko)
Haminu Dramani (Locomotive Moscow, Russia)
Stephen Appiah(unattached)
Samuel Kyere(Arab Contractors, Egypt)
Jordan Opoku(Asante Kotoko)
Dede Ayew(Lorient, France)
Quincy Owusu Abeyie( Birmingham City, England).

Strikers;
Junior Agogo (Zamalek, Egypt)
Matthew Amoah (NAC Breda, Holland)
Samuel Ayew Yeboah (Liberty Professionals)
Prince Tagoe (Al-Ittifaq, Saudi Arabia).

It is going to be a busy period for coach Rajevac. Immediately after this assignment against Tunsia, he would have to switch attention to the locally assembled Black Stars in preparation for the novelty African Nations Championship for home based players organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

This maiden competition will be hosted by Cote d’Ivoire in February 2009 and Ghana have a two leg decider against Nigeria to qualify for the tournament having reached this stage after completing the double over Niger in April. The first leg will take place in Ghana on November 30.

The home based players invited to start camping on Monday for the assignment are

Goalkeepers;
Fatau Dauda (Ashgold)
Ernest Sowah (Tema Youth)
Osei Boateng (King Faisal)

Defenders;
Samuel Inkoom(Asante Kotoko)
Emmanuel Ansong(Lions)
Habib Mohammed (Ashgold)
Ofosu Appiah(Asante Kotoko)
Iddrisu Yahaya(Kessben)
Kofi Agyare(Kessben)
Mohammed Awal(Feyenoord)
Nafiu Awudu(King Faisal)
Godfred Yeboah(Kotoko)

Midfielders;
Jordan Opoku (Asante Kotoko)
Edmund Owusu Ansah (Lions)
Daniel Yeboah (Liberty)
Agyemang Badu(Asante Kotoko)
Ebo Andoh (King Faisal)
Ekow Benson( Tema Youth)
Baba Iddi(Kessben)
Abraham Annan (Lions)
Kofi Abanga (Hearts)
Sam Ayew(Liberty)
Francis Mantey (Olympics)
Samuel Oppong(King Faisal)
Mark Sekyere (Asante Kotoko)

Strikers;
Eric Bekoe (Asante Kotoko)
Yaw Antwi (Liberty)
Kojo Poku (Asante Kotoko)
Alex Asamoah (Ashgold)
Latif Salifu (Liberty)

The writing was clearly on the wall. The days of Coach Bashiru Hayford with Kumasi Asante Kotoko as coach were numbered. The events following Kotoko’s unexpected 2-2 draw in the CAF Confederation Cup match at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium that effectively ended the club’s championship dreams in October, were an indication that danger was ominously looming in the horizon.

Fans rioted at the end of the match in question. The Beninois referee was unsportingly heckled and Coach Bashiru Hayford’s life was threatened by irate Kotoko fans. And to add confusion to disbelief, the coach unceremoniously abandoned post and left Kumasi for his home town Tema, the harbour city nearly 200 kilometres from Kumasi. For days, there were no contacts between him and the Kotoko management.

The coach did not bother to make any reports to the Kotoko management about his plight and the management also did not care to look for their head coach, even though the club had a pending CAF Confederation Cup match against El Merreikh of Sudan.
When Coach Hayford resurfaced in Kumasi a few days to the trip to Sudan, he described his sudden disappearance from Kumasi as a “tactical retreat” since his life was in danger and he was conscious of the fact that he had lost his wife not too long ago.

The Kotoko management was obviously not amused by Hayford’s demeanour and they flew the team to Sudan without him. Assistant coach, Johnson Smith was in charge when Kotoko lost the match 2-1 to place an uncharacteristic bottom of the group table behind Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia, El Merreikh of Sudan and JSK Algiers.

On return from the ill fated trip to Sudan, tension appeared to be in camp but the club summoned enough courage to face Liberty Professionals in the final of The GHALCA Top Four at the Baba Yara Stadium but lost narrowly 1-0 after their trade mark litany of missed chances.

As fans were gearing up for the next season and anxious to hear of recruitments to strengthen the team, came the sudden announcement that Kotoko were planning to sign on a new foreign coach. Within 48 hours of the news outbreak, the deal had been completed and now Asante Kotoko has unveiled a new coach in the person of Maurice Cooreman from Belgium who is on a two-year contract. In fact he has started work.

The Belgian has an interesting background. He has more than 10 years of experience in African football having been based in Nigeria for most part of his career on the continent.

Apart from being technical director for two time African champions Eyimba, until his appointment he had been in charge of Bendel Insurance, Lobi Stars and Gabros International. Typical of most expatriate coaches in Africa, the Belgian is hot tempered. In April this year, he was banned for five matches for attacking a referee during a titanic clash.

In 2006, he was fired by his club, Ocean Boys and re-appointed after just two weeks in a move that made wild headlines in Nigeria.

If the Belgian is familiar with wild headlines, then he would be very much at home with Asante Kotoko arguably the biggest club in Ghana, which makes the headlines every second whether for good or bad .It is only unfortunate that the gentleman he is coming to replace did not appear to be managed properly by management.

Bashiru Hayford had been complaining for the past two years that he only had a “verbal contract” with Kotoko and that his emoluments had continued to be a subject of controversy.
Now his fate seems to be in the balance. In the words of Kotoko’s spokesman Baah Nuako, “Hayford has been offered the opportunity by the new coach to work with him”. It is not clear in what capacity Bashiru is expected to work, but what seems clear is that management does not need his services.

This episode will revive the perennial debate on Ghanaian coaches and contracts. I will treat this topic in full in future, but in the meantime readers are encouraged to send their comments to me to generate a discussion.

For those who are interested in records this is the third foreign coach in recent times to train Kotoko- Ralph Zumdick (Germany), Dietar Schmidt (Germany) and Selat Uzum (Turkey).