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).

The two-match home ban slapped on Ghana’s champion club Kumasi Asante Kotoko by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for crowd violence after the recent Confederation Cup match against Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia, could be described as quite a reasonable punishment.

Never mind the fact that there is an additional fine of 15,000 dollars. To my mind, the punishment could have been worse. Kotoko supporters lost their patience a little too quickly in that ill-fated match played at the Baba Yara sports stadium in Kumasi. The 2-2 draw that effectively ended Kotoko’s championship dreams, was most unexpected if you want to base it on the trend of play. It is painful if you cannot make use of home grounds, but then it is most unsporting to attack a referee after a match no matter his strange decisions during the match.

It has to be admitted that Beninois referee Coffie Codja was not at his best form on the day. The penalty against Kotoko was controversial but that was no excuse for him to be heckled in any way. If anything, the Kotoko supporters should have been rather stern on their own players who at certain stages, played as if there was not much at stake. Build up was slow. It took them too long a time to launch an attack and when they did, they carelessly threw away good chances.

Collectively, Kotoko did not appear to have prepared in harmony for that crucial match. The rigmarole surrounding the position of head coach Bashiru Hayford, who was on the touchline apparently as an ordinary spectator did not enhance team spirit and comradeship.

Much as referees are expected to be as neutral as possible, as humans, an excellent hospitality especially decent accommodation could unconsciously sway him to give the home team the benefit of the doubt in a dicey situation. This, most fans believe should be the responsibility of the club’s Director of Operations. It is difficult to perceive that the referee might have been antagonized by the home team before kick off because he hardly gave Kotoko the benefit of the doubt in any 50-50 situation. Kotoko’s Director of Operations, Jerry Asare was naturally unamused and he could not sincerely flatter the referee who accused Jerry of inciting the crowd to attack him.

Of course this accusation could not be substantiated and Jerry escaped any CAF ban, leaving Kotoko to their fate. Unfortunately, it is the typical Kumasi-based fans who would feel the pinch in the two match home ban. Instead of the usual bus fare from home to the Baba Yara stadium in Kumasi, it would be a long journey to Accra, which would be the most likely new home ground and considering the expenditure involved this is not funny.

It is hoped Kotoko fans would learn a lesson from the temporary home ban for next year’s champions league and comport themselves well during the start of the premier league. This may even earn them a reprieve by CAF, who knows.

It is not so often that the Ghanaian football fraternity remembers its past heroes.The decision therefore by champion club Kumasi Asante Kotoko, to honour the memory of its long serving patron and philanthropist Benjamin Kyem Edusei (affectionately called “BK”) who died 35 years ago, has been lauded by many true sports lovers.

“BK” was one of the strongest pillars in the history of Kumasi Asante Kotoko Football Club. He was an enterprising businessman and owner of Asona Enterprises that dealt in building houses and road construction.

Operating from his Ringway Estate residence in Accra, he facilitated the recruitment of high profile players for Asante Kotoko with attractive monetary incentives. Kotoko thus became a strong force both at home and abroad and before long the “Porcupine Warriors” had become the champion club of Africa in 1970.

“BK” was unfortunately physically challenged, but this did not deter him from actively following the progress of his pet club. On some occasions he would watch a Kotoko match sitting in his car at the corner of the stadium. It was a real moving scene, when Kotoko arrived in Accra from Kinshasa in January 1971 with the Africa Cup and skipper Ibrahim Sunday presented the cup to “BK” in a waiting car at the Airport.

“BK” was the lover of footballers. He bought cars with his personal resources for some of the players with the aim of motivating them. He was the first to employ foreign coaches for Kotoko, namely Josef Ember and Kertz both from Hungary and paid for their two years emoluments.

The celebration will take the form of a memorial lecture on Nov 7, non-denominational church service and a football match. The lecture which will trace the history of Ghana football administration with special focus of Asante Kotoko will be given by Mr. Kofi Badu, arguably the greatest sports journalist Ghana has produced. He has been twice Managing Director of Graphic Communications, the biggest newspaper outfit in the country and one time Minister of State in the Kutu Acheampong administration.

A special football match scheduled to take place at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi on November 9 2008 between Asante Kotoko and King Faisal will climax the programme of activities that also coincide with the 75th anniversary of Asante Kotoko Football Club.

The management of Kotoko deserves congratulations for the honour done to the memory of this great football lover and philanthropist. It is hoped such honours would be bestowed on the living, especially dedicated retiring players who could be fittingly seen off with some testimonial matches as is done in many football loving countries.

It is good that Asante Kotoko fans kept their cool when irate Ittihad players from Libya went on the rampage at the end of the Confederation Cup match in Kumasi against Asante Kotoko that they lost 3-1. The Libyans destroyed electrical fittings and smashed a large screen plasma TV set in the dressing room in protest against what they described as unfair officiating by the Tunisian referee.

Cost of damage to property was estimated at nearly 4,000.dollars and the Libyan officials promptly accepted responsibility for the players’ action. Most observers of the Africa football scene are convinced that the behaviour of the Libyan team was to tempt Ghanaian football fans to react angrily so that they could in turn have an excuse for a brutal revenge when the national team, Black Stars, visit Tripoli next month for their crucial 2010 World Cup/ African Cup qualifying against Libya.

Ghana football has a history of such revenge. Nearly two decades ago Kotoko fans were maltreated in an Africa Cup match against Asec in Abidjan and there was some sort of retaliation in Kumasi which sent wild retributions in Cote d’Ivoire and some Ghanaians were even killed. It needed tacit diplomacy between the two countries before sanity prevailed. There is a lot at stake in the upcoming Ghana – Libya match and care must be taken to reduce the tension surrounding this fixture

The Black Stars share the top spot with Libya in the group league table with superior goal difference and the Libyans are bent on avenging the 3-0 defeat they suffered at the hands of the Black Stars in the first leg in Kumasi. Both Ghana and Libya have 9 points apiece. And reports from Libya indicate that the North Africans regard this encounter as a do or die affair. Before this clash of the titans in Tripoli which will definitely decide who should top the table, Libya will face Gabon and Ghana will host Lesotho.

Libyan football fans are not the friendliest in terms of hosting teams and the Black Stars cannot pretend to be expecting any red carpet reception in Libya. Notwithstanding the warm reception given to IItihad in Kumasi they will definitely tell tales of unfriendly treatment since they lost the match and especially when Kotoko were for once lucky to have the benefit of the doubts in two sticky situations, the penalty award and the disallowed Ittihad goal for offside positioning.

It is hoped by the time of this crucial match the Ghana Football Association would have solved its long drawn search for a foreign coach so that it would have the peace of mind to organize proper security arrangements for the Black Stars trip to Libya.. It is doubtful whether the nation would be prepared to accept any excuses for a sloppy show like what happened in Gabon.

This World Cup cum Africa Cup qualifiers is a long programme that needs long term planning and the football authorities must not be allowed to take things for granted. The 12 group winners and the best eight runners up will qualify for a second group stage where the first group winners will go to the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

The top three in each group will qualify for the Cup of Nations in Angola bur the nation expects nothing short of a trip to South Africa and this means hard work and taking the right decisions at the right time. Over to you, Ghana Football Association.

Football club supporters all over the world take delight in bragging rights but in my estimation supporters of Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko are a special breed whose passion for the game and loyalty to their pet clubs put them well above ordinary mortals in terms of bragging. In fact to them their club does no wrong and they would easily contrive excuses and reasons for any mishap.

The other day when Hearts, contrary to the form guide, held Kotoko to a pulsating 3-3 draw in an outstanding league match at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi, boasted that no matter their form Kotoko cannot take them for cheap. "They are lucky that goalkeeper Souleman who conceded three goals in the first half was changed otherwise it would have been a disaster in the second half" boasted a Hearts fan who firmly believes that there are always some spiritual forces surrounding matches between Kotoko and Hearts and that the goalie hardly knew what was happening around him.

The fact that Asante Kotoko after the match against Hearts went on to collect six points with victories over Tema Youth and Kessben whilst Hearts got a point by drawing with Real Tamale United and losing to Arsenals did not matter much to Hearts supporters.

“With all their top striking form they could not beat us on their home grounds” said an elated Hearts supporter “Kotoko can never be our masters” he added.

Kotoko supporters on the other hand are prepared to argue that they softened up for Hearts so that Hearts with their bad form don’t suffer relegation. “After all they help us to swell our coffers". The match in Kumasi fetched more than two hundred thousand Ghanaian cedis approximately 200,000 dollars which is a record and they should be around to give us more of those” said an ardent Kotoko supporter. This is bragging at its best.

Asante Kotoko are on top of the table with 50 points and Hearts lie 10th with 27 points,but both clubs insist on having the same bragging rights. Kotoko on Wednesday lost 1-0 to Real Tamale United in Tamale and their supporters’ ready answer to that defeat is that “the Tamale boys are our brothers and we don’t want to worsen their relegation worries”.

Hearts of Oak also dropped a valuable home point to Kpandu Heart of Lions the same day and their supporters have a quick answer: “the Kpandu boys are our name sake, we come from the same roots. It’s a family affair.

Surely when it comes to bragging rights between Kotoko and Hearts supporters you can bet you last cedi that it is going to be a ding dong affair.