As Ghana’s champion club Kumasi Asante Kotoko return home from Morocco after their early exit in the Champions league, there is a strong agitation for the dismissal of Coach Opeele Boateng. Kotoko were eliminated by Khemisset of Morocco who qualified by the away goal after both sides had tied 3-3. Kotoko won 3-1 at home and lost 2-0 away.

There are reports that Kotoko were unfairly treated by the match officials as if they were expecting any red carpet reception in Morocco. A cross section of Kotoko supporters interviewed by this writer hold the view that the coach talks more than he can do to transform the club to its traditional winning ways.

The coach has a regular column in the Graphic Sports newspaper, Ghana’s flagship sports bi- weekly and critics fault him for not translating his high sounding theories into practice. One strong voice calling for coach Boateng’s removal is veteran Asante Kotoko follower Assad Mallah who has been a long serving director of the club. As far back as 1983, Assad who was special adviser to chairman Yaw Bawuah played a pivotal role in the club’s Africa Cup title triumph that year.

Assad is a strong believer in what he calls the “Kotoko tradition” and his suggestion is that when it comes to the selection of local coaches, Kotoko should pick someone who has once played for the club and therefore has the “Kotoko spirit in him”.

He mentioned coaches like Malik Jabir, Osei Kofi, Sunday Ibrahim and Abdul Razak who donned the red jerseys in their hey days and said these are the kind of people who can inject some sense of commitment in the players.

Assad conceded that the board room rift among the Kotoko management team does not bring good tidings and advised that the members should close their ranks to ensure a smooth administration. He appealed to the Asantehene who is chief life patron of the club, to appoint a board of directors as early as possible to supervise the work of the management team. “This arrangement worked perfectly in the past and this is the opportune time to get a Board on board”, Assad added.

Assad Mallah

The exit of Kotoko from the Champions league adds to the first round elimination of Heart of Lions in February by Etoile Filante of Burkina Faso on 4-3 aggregate. Lions lost 2-0 away and their 3-2 home win was not big enough to see them make any progress.

Incidentally the two Africa Cup failures Kotoko and Lions are chasing Accra Hearts of Oak for the league title hoping to get another chance to enter Africa next season. From the look of things it could be a wild chase because the gap between leaders Accra Hearts of Oak and the other title aspirants is quite huge.

At the end of the first round, Hearts top with 35 points followed by King Faisal 26, Heart of Lions 25 and Asante Kotoko 24.

The history of the Ghana league always favours the pace setters and even though football is a game of uncertainties it would take a lot of doing to unseat Accra Hearts of Oak from the top.

I wish the Ghana league could produce the sort of exciting finish being witnessed in the English Premiership. The sudden loss of form of the hitherto run away winners, Manchester United coupled with the sudden surge in form of Liverpool have conspired to produce an exhilarating finish.

After running riot banging in goals at will, Liverpool were nearly stopped in their tracks but they fought like potential champions for a late winner against Fulham. This victory was enough to put them on top of the table with two points ahead of Manchester United who had to honour their match against Aston Villa the following day. Honestly, the way the English fixtures are arranged at times baffles me. In my part of the world it would be difficult to convince the ordinary supporter why all the three title chasers played their matches the same day leaving the top of the table match for the following day. The myriad permutations of reasons for this act can be compiled into a book. It was a normality in England and so Manchester United fans raised no issues, they stormed Old Trafford all right and won the three points in a hard fight against Aston Villa.

Perhaps Ghana’s Premier League Board Chairman Welbeck Abrah Appiah would liaise with his English counterparts and come out with some innovations in the compilation of fixtures that would make the local league tick the more.

The first round did not record many nasty incidents probably because match officials are now more vigilant and probably spectators are beginning to understand the laws of the game. It looks like interest in the premier league is on the increase and let us look forward to an exciting second round.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.

April 10 1995: Ibrahim Adam appointed chairman of Tamale Real United FC.

April 12 1995: Bora Milutonic who guided the US national soccer team in the World Cup has resigned as head coach. He stepped down over differences regarding his future role with US soccer. He had been asked to take an expanded role in the US Soccer Federation by overseeing the development of coaching and players in addition to his work with the national team. He said he preferred to concentrate on on-field coaching.

April 6 1996:Former Olympic women’s sprints champion,Florence Joyner of the US has been admitted in hospital suffering from a seizure on a flight from Los Angeles to St Louis for the annual Jackie Joyner-Kersee relays.

April 12 1996: Ghana’s Ike Quartey retains his WBA welterweight title by knocking out Vince Phillips in the third round. Ike’s record now 32-0 says he wants Whittaker.

April 4 1997: Argentina had two players sent off and became involved in a brawl that held up play for nearly ten minutes as they lost 2-1 to Bolivia in a World Cup qualifying match.

April 8 1997: Nigerian international footballer Augustine Okocha attacked Turkish photographers who had taken pictures of him and his fiancée on the training ground of the player’s Fenerbache Club. Okocha attacked the photographers when they declined his request to hand over their films. He then left in his car.

April 9 1997: Zambian national soccer coach Ian Potterfield said he would quit at the end of this month because of unwarranted criticism of his steam. He helped build the Zambian team after it perished in air disaster.The accusations are that the team is too defensive minded.

It could be a coincidence but many football fans are prepared to bet that the reported Boardroom row over payment of bonus may have accounted for the Black Stars of Ghana’s rather unimpressive performance against The Squirrels of Benin in their recent World Cup/Africa Cup qualifying match in Kumasi.

In the match under review, Ghana had the tonic of a first minute goal but instead of the expected goal harvest, Benin hit back gallantly and in the end the Stars had to sweat to maintain the thin lead that earned them three valuable points to top their group table.

Media reports after the match highlighted on an altercation between the new Minister in charge of Sports Muntaka Mubarak on the question of winning bonus for the team. It is reported that in line with the new government policy of cutting down costs, winning bonus was gong to be reduced from US$8000 to US$6000. The players were obviously not enthused and the popular belief is that they were not in the right mood to hit their peak.

Officials of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) have however played down on these speculations and they argue it was just one of the inconsistencies associated with football that robbed Ghana of a massive win. The assurance is that there is absolute peace in camp.

Kofi Nsiah, secretary of the GFA holds the view that Benin offered a tough opposition. “Ghana are normally slow starters and even though the players seemed to lack endurance as a result of their tight schedule abroad, the important thing is that we took a great step by claiming all the three points”, he told me in an interview at the FA headquarters in Accra.

Kofi Nsiah (in shirt) GFA Secretary.
He says there is no cause for alarm

The FA Secretary is confident that the team would gel as the competition progresses and he was confident that Ghana would qualify for South Africa 2010.

Kofi Manu, a well known football critic and at various times Accra representative of Premier division clubs, B.A.United, Arsenal and Ashgold thinks the Black Stars need an infusion of new blood .Hear him “We need youngsters who will be motivated to fight for honours. Most of the current stars have already made it and there is very little left for them to prove. Having already played at the World Cup the motivation is not as strong as those who are fighting to play at that top level for the first time”.

Kofi Manu recalled that when Cameroon burst on to the world stage in 1982, the players subsequently became swollen headed and standards fell. Youngsters led by Samuel Etoo had to be infused into the team to make them shine again.

Kofi Manu a football critic, says Black Stars need new blood.

He cited The Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire has a rich blend of the youth and the experienced and suggested that Ghana should follow that path. Well, the debate still continues.

Nearly a week since the Ghana – Benin match, it still continues to dominate the newspaper headlines and in the electronic media as the numerous football experts keep on propounding all kinds of theories that would make the Black Stars qualify for their second successive World Cup appearance.

June 6 is quite a long way to go for the next assignment against Mali in Bamako but fans can’t wait to see the master plan that would make the Black Stars once more a formidable football force in Africa.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports. Your comments are welcome.

It looks as if the bug that hit Manchester United forcing them to surrender a number of their hitherto impeccable records has hit Ghana’s champion club Kumasi Asante Kotoko. As if on cue, Asante Kotoko has quickly surrendered their impressive home record this season and half way through the Premiership they have lost three home matches already, their worst home performance in half a century.

Traditional rivals Accra Hearts of Oak were the first to puncture Kotoko’s seemingly home invincibility on Feb 8 with a neat 2-1 win and this was followed by another surprise 2-1 defeat at the hands of Sekondi Eleven Wise on March 11. If the Eleven Wise defeat was a surprise then the third home loss to Swedru All Blacks, a 2-0 whipping on April Fools Day was really stunning.

The records will show that even though All Blacks have once beaten Kotoko by the same margin in the 1998 league at Swedru, their best performance in Kumasi was a 1-1 draw on March 11 1974. The proverbial “Black Magicians” have always succumbed to Kotoko and last season for instance Kotoko won 3-0 in Kumasi and snatched a 3-1 away win at Swedru.

While football analysts regard such shocking results as splendid tonic for competitive football, supporters of the elegant clubs who are used to victories are not enthused at all.

Kotoko fans for example regard the defeat to All Blacks as a bad omen coming on the eve of a Champions League match against Khemiset of Morocco this weekend.

A section of the fans tried to cause some commotion after the match and club officials had a tough time explaining that it was not easy combining the local league with the continental series.

Observers however believe that the wide publicity being given to a supposed board room wrangling is making supporters jittery and it would be a good idea if the custodians of the club would come out openly to clear the air and calm the nerves of the worried fans.

Don’t let us forget that football followers are a passionate lot and the least misunderstanding can generate into a raging inferno difficult to control.

Meanwhile, the Premier League Board deserves congratulations for a successful first round. It is hoped that the next round would see a more careful planning to contain the numerous international matches leading to the Cup of Nations in Angola and the World Cup in South Africa.

Accra Hearts of Oak can walk with chests up for they have really set a cracking pace in the competition. If the trend continues like this, the cup could be presented to them by the middle of the second round. Coach Papic is gradually turning the team into its winning way that saw them winning the cup six times in a row during the turn of the century. They can do it again.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.

April 3 1995 : Leeds United wants Ghanaian international Anthony Yeboah to stay. Meanwhile, Frankfurt coach Jupp Henches whose public row led to the striker’s departure has left the club.

April 4 1995: Qatar set to replace Nigeria in the World Youth tournament. FIFA says Nigeria has failed to meet two extended deadlines.

April 5 1995: Blackburn stretch lead in English League to eight points following a 1-0 win over Queens Park Rangers.

April 6 1995: British lawmakers have defeated an attempt to make boxing illegal voting down a bill introduced by an opposition Labour MP.

April 6 1995: Inter Milan has confirmed they were still interested in buying controversial French star Eric Cantona from Manchester United.