Those who believed strongly that the Kumasi Asante Kotoko- Accra Hearts of Oak duopoly of the Ghana premier league would end this season are now beginning to revise their notes. The two veteran campaigners who had been stuttering all along during the first round have made a dramatic recovery in the second session and are giving the pacesetters a good chase.

With ten more matches to go, Hearts (32) and Kotoko (30) are third and fourth respectively behind leaders Aduana Stars (36) and Ashgold (35). Hearts’ brilliant 3-2 away victory over Eleven Wise in Sekondi and Kotoko’s 2-0 home win over  New Edubiase shot them to their respective enviable positions on the league ladder to be among the proverbial “top four”.

This weekend’s 11th week pairings are expected to provide exciting results that may affect placings at the top. Surprise league leaders Aduana Stars are most likely to maintain their unbeaten home record at the expense of unstable Bechem Chelsea but runners up Ashgold face a tough away encounter against Kpando Heart of Lions which may threaten their second spot on the table.

Defending champions Hearts of Oak could move to second spot by beating city rivals Great Olympics if they maintain the form that won them maximum points at the expense of Eleven Wise in Sekondi last week. Olympics the reputed “Wonder club” of Ghana football have been quite unstable since their return to the Premiership and they stand the risk of going further down the ladder against the rejuvenated defending champions.

Asante Kotoko, the league’s highest collector of trophies, have by their own high standards played below form this season even though this is enough top place them among the top four. The 21 times league champions could maintain their top four slot with a narrow win over bottom club Hasaacas in Sekondi.

Decades ago this fixture would have been a blockbuster but it looks like both teams have lost their past glamour and not much tension is expected in this encounter. Gone are the days when Hasaacas were the real “Giants of the West” who could stoutly stand Kotoko and on several occasions score some incredible victories. Those glorious days at the legendary Gyandu Park are sadly gone and we are now saddled with pretenders parading as professional footballers with very limited skills to show.  Its quite unfortunate, football fans are being shortchanged these days so don’t be surprised to see a half filled stadium.

The remaining fixtures pairing mainly those in the middle belt and the relegation zone will see King Faisal hosting Eleven Wise in Kumasi; Real Tamale United will also host Berekum Arsenal in Tamale and New Edubiase will also  be home to Wa All Stars.

The last but not the least encounter will feature Liberty Professionals and Kessben at Dansoman a suburb of Accra. Both teams have some faint title hopes and it would be interesting to see how they hope to brighten their championship aspirations.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports but please forgive me for my long, unannounced silence on the blog. It wasn’t because I was trying to figure out the whole brouhaha about Wayne Bridge and John Terry over that “Chelsea lady”, neither was I overjoyed with Rooney’s current smashing form but I was bogged down by a virus in my beloved computer that left me completely paralysed (figuratively speaking).

This is no joke. Computer viruses in my part of the world are very stubborn and they take quite a time to be eradicated.

Anyway I am back and three won’t be any more AWOL. Cheers everyone and keep loving sports.

The football purists who have been praying for a halt to the duopoly of Ghana’s Premier league by Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Accra Hearts of Oak are likely to have their wishes granted if the current forward march by hitherto unsung clubs continues.

Since 1978 when the then newly created Real Tamale United took the league by storm and almost led from start to finish, no newcomer has established such a credible title ambition like Aduana Stars from Dormaa Ahenkro are portraying this season.

Perched on top of the table for the major part of the Premiership, Aduana Stars are impregnable at home; the only side to have won all eight home matches in the league that enters its 19th week on Sunday. That dreaded home invincibility faces a big test when Aduana host 21 time champions Asante Kotoko in the top liner of the weekend’s fixtures.

Everything points to a pulsating encounter. Kotoko are fresh from their 2-0 Africa Cup defeat at the hands of Senegalese club FC Liguere last week and Coach Paa Kwasi Fabin says they are determined to erase memories of that defeat and use the match against Aduana as a dress rehearsal for their return match against the Senegalese on Feb 28. It will be tough.Aduana has not conceded any goal at their pet home grounds and it would be interesting to see how Kotoko could break that enviable record.

Kotoko have history on their side. You may recall that in 1978 when debutants Real Tamale United were sailing menacingly to a league triumph on their first attempt, it was Kotoko that disrupted their title ambitions with a 2-0 defeat at a crucial moment like this.

It looks like history would repeat itself. Unlike 1978 when Kotoko had little title hopes, they are this time hopeful of reaching the top and this should give them an added incentive to halt the marauding youngsters from Dormaa Ahenkro. It’s not going to easy though.

A side attraction to this titanic clash is that Aduana Stars coach Herbert Addo was in charge of Kotoko last season but a dispute over wages led to his departure to Dormaa. It would therefore give Herbert a personal bragging right if he can reverse the 1-0 first round defeat and brighten their record breaking championship hopes. 

The Accra Hearts of Oak v Ashgold match in Accra will be another tough pairing. Ashgold are just a point behind the leaders and don’t seem to have any intention of abandoning that spot hoping to leapfrog to the top at the slightest opportunity Hearts on the other hand want to defend their title in style and also avoid a third time defeat in a row having lost to Liberty Professional and Berekum Arsenal in their last two outings.

Third placed Kessben will travel to Tamale to face Real |Tamale United in another tough encounter.

All the remaining five matches have their peculiar attractions. At Obuasi, New Edubiase will face Accra Great Olympics; Sekondi Hasaacas will face Eleven Wise in a local derby; King Faisal will meet Berekum Arsenal in Kumasi; Kpando Heart of Lions will host Liberty Professional and Berekum Chelsea will also host Wa All Stars.

The general expectation is that there would be dramatic changes in the league table this weekend since the points gap among the first five top clubs are very tight;Aduana Stars 32,Ashgold 31, Kessben 30, Hearts 28,All Stars 28 follow in that order.

The race for the top four in the Ghana Premier league is as close as the English Premiership. There must be something in a name after all.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.

FROM MY ARCHIVES

Feb 21st 1993: English soccer’s Premier league has signed a 12 million pounds sterling sponsorship deal with Britain’s largest brewery.

From next season, the league will be known as the FA Carling Premier league and the brewers claim their four year deal represents the biggest sponsorship agreement in British sport.

Ghanaian light heavyweight boxer Braimah Kamoko affectionately called “Bukom Banku” is noted for his theatricals in the ring and his stand up jokes on radio and television but I submit he went overboard on Saturday. His appearance in the ring for his non title fight against Brazilian Emmanuel da Silva at the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in Accra was appalling.  In a white gown wearing dark glasses and holding a white cane, Kamoko depicted a blind man in obvious derision of the medical advice given to him two years ago to stop boxing to save his eyes. He has ignored medical advice and resumed the fistic sport.

If Kamoko’s theatricals were meant to ridicule medical science, then it was really misconceived much as the physically challenged would not be the least enthused by his imitation of the blind.

I have repeated several times that we take a lot of things for granted in my part of the world. I can’t imagine this happening in  the UK for example when I can recall what happened to England national football coach Glenn Hoddle who was sacked for making what the nation saw as derogatory remarks about the physically challenged in society.

Kamoko might have won the fight all right via a seventh round TKO but I maintain that those theatricals that heralded his arrival in the ring were neither funny nor necessary at all. It is my considered opinion that the Ghana Boxing Authority should sanction him for bringing the name of the sport into disrepute.

The last time I checked, boxing was still described as the noble art of self defence.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.

FROM MY ARCHIVES

Feb 10th 1993: Riddick Bowe’s manager, after a flurry of negotiations, taunts, and name calling on both sides, has offered Lennox Lewis a winner-take-all heavyweight title fight worth about 30millon dollars in June.
Bowe gave up the title under threat of being stripped of the title for not fighting Lewis in the first defence of the crown he won by beating Evander Holyfield last November.

The sporting media is generally noted for their double edged attitude towards sports practitioners. The virtues of a sportsman or sportswoman could be extolled to the high heavens with all the adjectives one can think of much as a little indiscretion on his part could send him to the cleaners by the same praise singers.

The English media seem to lead in this aspect of journalism and the way national football skipper John Terry of Chelsea fame has been on the spotlight for reportedly having an affair with  a colleague footballer’s former girl friend is typical.

If this had happened in my part of the world, it would have been no news because even President Atta Mills has openly questioned the media for making noise about a cabinet minister’s flirtation with a young female secretary. ”Is it the first time a minister has travelled abroad with his girl friend?”, President Mills queried the media at a public function at Government House.

What tickles me about this whole John Terry affair is the contrasting attitude of the two Italian coaches closely in touch with Terry’s football career. England manager Fabio Capello believes Terry’s personal problems are his own and has relieved him of the England captaincy. The Italian has an eye on the World Cup and obviously wants to avoid any tension in camp since Wayne Bridge whose former girl friend in the centre of the controversy, is a key member of the England squad.

Capello is a real disciplinarian and principled. He has promised to talk with the dismissed captain apparently to explain his action in detail knowing very well what the honour of England captaincy means to Terry.

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti on the other hand doesn’t seem to see what all the fuss is about. He is actually surprised to see so much interest about someone’s private life.  The invasion of press photographers at the club’s training obviously trailing John Terry amazes him.

Exhibiting some humour he said “with helicopters hovering above the team at training everyday”, maybe he “would soon have to use a megaphone”.

This lighthearted remark about the media is in sharp contrast with the one by Arsene Wenger who hit at the press for misquoting remarks he made after Arsenal’s defeat by Chelsea. Hear him “You take one word of my press conference to turn it around every time”.

Wenger was reported to have expressed misgivings about the loss to Chelsea which remarks brought a sharp response from Chelsea’s German skipper Michael Ballack that “football is not possession of the ball and playing a nice pass, football is about winning and that’s what we did”. This is quite an interesting rigmarole and as someone put it, the sporting media can make or mar. Their sword cuts both ways and sports practitioners and managers must learn to live it.

Meanwhile, it is my fervent hope that this John Terry saga will not escalate to anything nasty to disturb the high morale in the camp of England for the World Cup. The Three Lions always add some special spice to the World Cup and I would love to see them making their presence felt in South Africa in June.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.

FROM MY ARCHIVES

Feb 10th 1999: Juventus manager Marcello Lippi has offered his resignation after the reigning Italian champions crashed to a 4-2. Defeat to Parma which ended any hopes they had of a third consecutive title.

The surprise top notch performance by the youthful Black Stars in the just ended Africa Cup of nations that saw them narrowly missing the trophy, has generated an interestingly heated national debate whether or not Ghana should stick to the same side for the upcoming World Cup side or bring back the experienced stars.

I consider this debate uncalled for because in the first place there is a whole world of difference between the Africa Cup and the Mundial.

Secondly, apart from Sulley Muntari who was axed for indiscipline, Coach Milovan cannot claim it was a deliberate policy to field those youngsters. The truth of the matter is most of the known stars that qualified Ghana for Angola 2010 and the South Africa World Cup were on the sick list. You name them: John Mensah, Laryea Kingston, John Paintsil, Stephen Appiah, Michael Essien, Eric Addo and Co were all hit by injuries.

Milovan therefore had no choice but to fall on the cream of the Black Satellites (Under 20) that had had some experience at the Junior World Cup. Luckily, they rose to the occasion but one may ask whether it is necessary to stretch our luck that far to the world cup. I don’t think so.

I submit that we can still use a few of the youngsters in South Africa but if the oldies show true form after their recovery from injuries they should be given preference

This debate must stop. The youngsters would agree that they have a long and bright future ahead of them and I believe they would be so matured by the next Africa Cup that their participation in the subsequent 2014 World Cup in Brazil would come automatically.

Let’s not rush to discard those who toiled to make Ghana’s qualification for Angola and South Africa 2010 so deceptively easy. Sulley Muntari, the rebel, is reported to have apologized for his insulting behaviour towards coach Milovan when he blatantly failed to honour an appointment in Italy. The apology must be accepted for its worth and the veteran striker must be given the opportunity to show remorse.

It should be borne in mind that a lot of water is going to pass over the bridge between now and the World Cup in June and it is unwise to sow any discords in the Black Stars team. It is my considered opinion that a beautiful blend of the old and new stars, Manchester United style, would do the trick in South Africa.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.

FROM MY ARCHIVES

Feb 4th 1999: Glenn Hoddle’s two and half year reign as England soccer coach ended when he was sacked following comments he made about disabled people. He was the first England manager to be sacked since Alf Ramsey in 1974.