Sports
Black Stars Technical Team Revamped 10 hours ago
facebook sharing buttontwitter sharing buttonemail sharing buttonwhatsapp sharing buttonsms sharing buttonsharethis sharing button
Black Stars Technical Team Revamped
After a thorough review of the performance of the Black Stars during last year’s qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), the Ghana Football Association has revamped the Technical team of the Stars.
The vastly experienced and accomplished German Manager and former African Cup of Nations Winner (with Cameroon in 2002), Winfried Anton Schafer, has been appointed as Technical Advisor of the team with a mandate to work closely with Head Coach Otto Addo to build a winsome team. Schafer will also play the role of Director of Football for the Football Association.
Winfried Schafer assumes the role having excelled in a managerial career spanning a little over 40 years working with a number of National teams (Cameroon, Thailand and Jamaica) as well as European clubs including Borussia Monchengladbach, Karlsruher SC, VFB Stuttgart and Borussia Berlin.
The highlight of Schafer’s experience with national teams was his winning the African Cup of Nations with Cameroon in 2002.
Schafer has also coached in the United Arab Emirates, working with top clubs namely Al Ain, Al-Ahli Dubai, Baniyas and Al-Khor. His last coaching role was with Al Khor.
Coming on board as Assistant to Otto Addo is the architect of Ghana’s resurgence at the male Under-20 level, Coach Desmond Ofei. The Africa Games gold medal winning Coach and Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) Coach of the Year 2024, who has swiftly carved a niche for himself as an achiever, is expected to bring his expertise and deep analytical prowess to the team.
Kris Perquy, an experienced Sports Psychologist with 17 years’ experience, takes up the mantle of Psychologist of the team. Perquy was a key resource in the professionalisation of the football psychology of Belgium, where he worked with the Belgian Football Association for 15 years. He also worked as Mental Coach for a number of professional football clubs in Belgium.
The Video Analysis Unit of the team will be headed by Belgian Video Analyst Gregory De Grauwe who has built his expertise and experience in Video Analysis working with football clubs including Sporting Lokeren and K. Beerschot VA. De Grauwe holds a UEFA License B Coaching license as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education.
Two new vastly experienced Equipment Officers, in the persons of Issah Amadou (Asante Kotoko) and Abdul Rahman Alhassan (Hearts of Oak). have also been named to the team. These two equipment handlers have a combined total of fifty-three years’ experience between them.
Full List of Black Stars Technical Team:
The curtains would be drawn on the Ghana Premier League tomorrow, with four teams locked in a fierce battle to avoid relegation.
Nations FC, Young Apostles, Swedru All Blacks, and Basake Holy Stars would hope to avoid joining Eleven Wonders and Hohoe United, who have already been relegated.
Nations FC must be at their absolute best to secure all three points against Karela United at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium, while hoping results elsewhere go in their favour.
After suffering a blow last week with a home loss to Vision FC, Coach Stephen Frimpong Manso, who won the league last season with Bibiani Gold Stars, will be desperate to guide Nations to safety.
However, the task is daunting given Karela’s home form; they have lost only one game at the venue this season.
Another battlefield will be the Baba Yara Stadium, where Swedru All Blacks, would need to beat Asante Kotoko to survive.
For Kotoko’s interim coach, Hamza Obeng, signing off a troubled season with a win would offer some comfort to the ‘Porcupine faithful,’ who have been calling for a new direction for the club.
At the Wenchi Sports Stadium, it is a day of destiny for Young Apostles, who need nothing short of a win against Samartex FC to survive.
Meanwhile, Basake Holy Stars must secure all three points against Dreams FC at the Ampain AAK II Sports Arena to avoid any head-to-head complications that may arise later.
Elsewhere, defending champions Bibiani Gold Stars remain at home at Dun’s Park to welcome already relegated Eleven Wonders.
In other fixtures, Vision FC welcomes Aduana FC to the Nii Adjei Kraku II Sports Complex in Tema, and Berekum Chelsea faces Bechem United FC at Golden City Park. Finally, the Accra Sports Stadium will host newly crowned champions Medeama SC as they visit Accra Hearts of Oak.
BY RAYMOND ACKUMEY
Across the sports world, hosting a tournament or championship has become inseparable from the expectation of absolute victory.
Breaking this down, hosting a major sports tournament comes with a very clear mandate: that is to ‘host and win.’
To ‘host and win’ means a country must successfully organise the championship and climax it by emerging winners.
The concept carries specific cultural weight and comes with different interpretation depending on the context.
In major continental or global events, it refers to the phenomenon where the host nation uses home-ground advantage, local fan support, and familiarity with the climate and facilities to lift the trophy.
A few countries have been able to achieve this in the past but generally, winning a major championship just because one is a home country is incredibly difficult.
This is the reason why Ghana’s failure to win the 24th Africa Seniors Athletics Championship staged in Accra would be pardoned.
It will be preposterous, in fact laughable, for any athletics follower to have such expectation for Team Ghana considering the quality of opposition at the championship.
But one aspect of the ‘host and win’ concept Ghana Athletics and the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the championship did not impress was organization at a certain point.
Coming few days after the World Relays championship in Botswana which was excellently staged, expectation was high about Ghana’s ability to also showcase a world class show.
That expectation was also fuelled by the fact that infrastructure was not a problem as Ghana hosted a successful athletics event just about three years ago- the Accra 2023 Africa Games at the same venue.
But it started on a negative note, with complains over food, equipment and other issues flying all over with bloggers making huge capital out of it.
Gladly, Ghana’s Minister for Sports and Recreation, Mr Kofi Adams shed some light on the organization of the event which he said had received wide commendation from many of the participating countries.
According to him, the feedback from some of the countries that have attended previous events suggests that the Accra edition was the best.
The minister explained that Ghana met all organizational protocols since beating Botswana to the bid two years ago and also went on to clarify that some of the reported challenges occurred because only 11 of the 49 participating countries completed the accreditation processes within the spelt out timeline.
Personally, I agree with the sports minister to a large extent. Events of this magnitude often comes with challenges but a country/LOC’s ability to address them go a long way to show a certain level of commitment to stage a great show.
Maybe, what event or sports organisers must take cognizance of at such events is the growing trend of the lack of proper arrangement for the media to carry out their duties.
It was heartbreaking to see journalists, expected to cover the opening of the event, hover around the peripherals just because their space was occupied by the fans.
This is a growing phenomenon across events of late. This is another major concern officialdom must give attention to but for Ghana Athletics, it was a great opportunity to learn to avoid repeats in future.
By Andrew Nortey
