Last Sunday’s stadium disaster in the Ivorian capital of Abidjan, that claimed nearly 20 lives must be a signal for the rest of Africa especially those of us along the West Coast to tighten security for the ongoing World Cup/Africa Cup qualifying series. more »

March 30th 1998: FIFA and their World Cup referees forecast there would be no flood of red cards over the tackle from behind. They told reporters they were happy with the definition of the tackle from behind that comes into effect in the finals starting… more »

There is every indication that the 2010 World Cup qualifying series to pick the best five for South Africa will be a hectic race. Ghanaian football fans were privileged to witness two of the group stage matches in Accra and Kumasi involving Togo and Cameroun, Ghana and Benin and the similarities in the two matches were significant. more »

March 13rd 1998: FIFA was thrown into confusion today when its autocratic President Joao Havelange stormed out of a meeting before a vote could be taken on the future of General Secretary Sepp Blatter. more »

The Hawk is a bird noted for its wonderful ability to hunt for preys while simultaneously protecting its offspring. This is exactly what the Togo national football team that goes by the appellation The Hawks did in their first round match World Cup/Africa Cup qualifiers against The Indomitable Lions of Cameroun at the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra on Saturday. more »

March 23rd 1995 : Manchester United striker Eric Cantona has been sentenced to two weeks imprisonment for common assault. more »

It may seem rather odd that you pay tribute to someone you never met personally but I would like to remember the memory of Kofi Ghanaba , the divine drummer for a small parcel he sent me in the seventies when I was a young sportswriter with the Daily Graphic newspaper. more »

Midfield dynamo Michael Essien, buoyed by his magnificent exploits at Chelsea has been able to woo many Ghanaians football fans to support the blue and white shirted men from Stamford Bridge in London. Indeed, most Ghanaians would have wished Essien had arrived in the country for this weekend’s assignment with the Black Stars on a happier note and not immediately after Chelsea’s defeat to Tottenham Hotspurs in the English Premiership. more »

There is no doubt that sportsmen take a lot of inspiration from crowd support. In football especially it is termed home advantage. There are many instances when thunderous partisan cheers from the stands have won victories for home teams on the brink of defeat. more »

Asante Kotoko’s former coach Bashiru Hayford who was sacked by the club under very bizarre circumstances made a secret vow to seek revenge for that unceremonious dismissal from office. When he was signed on by Premier division Kessben FC founded by Kwabena Kessie another aggrieved former director of Asante Kotoko, the coach sensed he had got the right platform to plot revenge. The two clubs would by all means meet in the Premiership and a victory over Kotoko would be a sweet revenge, he envisaged. more »

If Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson had hailed from my part of the world he would be thinking of consulting the gods for the incredible bad luck that has hit club in the past weeks. Many die hard supporters of the club regarded the 4-1 drubbing by Liverpool at Old Trafford last weekend as one of those crazy days in football when everything goes haywire but the 2-0 defeat by Fulham at Carven Cottage, the first since 1964 must set the alarm bells ringing. The so-called world club champions must sit up. more »

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has set such a high standard in his handling of the club at Old Trafford that supporters of the club take victories for granted especially at the Theatre of Dreams. Victory is regarded as a matter of course and the way United have been able to keep away their traditional rivals, Liverpool, from the Premiership title for the past 19 years is invaluable to United’s supporters worldwide. more »

It is an established fact Ghana is a highly religious country that believes in prayers for divine intervention in times of need. A couple of years back when the Volta lake at Akosombo was drying at an alarming rate threatening the major source of electric power to the nation, a national week or so of prayer did the trick and the rains fell in abundance to save the situation. more »

Once again, I am taking a quotation from Ghana’s former Director of Sports, the inimitable Ohene Djan who said that “without shocks, surprises and inconsistencies, football will cease to be an attraction”. The 4-1 defeat of Manchester United by Liverpool at Old Trafford of all places confirms the late Ohene Djan’s theory. more »

I don’t think it is fair to begrudge the English for making their Premier League arguably the most fascinating domestic football competition in the world. The recent comments by FIFA President Sepp Blatter that the English Premiership was becoming too powerful much to the detriment of football promotion worldwide is to my mind not a fair comment at all. Blatter is not happy that top foreign players are dominating the English league and he would prefer some kind of rationalization, where clubs would be restricted to a certain percentage of home grown players. more »

My prediction of an intriguing African Nations Championship Cup final between Ghana and Congo became a reality. Exactly a week after losing heavily 3-0 to Ghana in the qualifying rounds, the fast running Congolese turned the tables and they really deserved the 2-0 win over the Black Stars of Ghana. more »

The maiden Africa Nations Championships (CHAN) has produced an intriguing pairing involving the Black Stars of Ghana and D.R.Congo just like we had in the 6th Cup of Nations in Ethiopia 1968. more »

Black Stars Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac has confounded his critics following the Stars surprise 3-0 win over DR Congo in the final group matches of the ongoing African Nations Championships in Cote d’Ivoire. more »