Sports
Of Black Stars’ AFCON ticket, and football’s home violence
Sweat merchant of the Black Stars, CK Akonnor, deserves a bouquet of orchids for seeing Ghana to the Cameroon 2021 African Cup of Nations.
First, the Stars on Thursday held their own against South Africa away as they battled Bafana Bafana to a grueling 1-1 tie – a result that guaranteed Ghana a place in next year’s AFCON – with a game to spare.
And, this feat was achieved without some of the marquee names like skipper Andre Dede Ayew and brother Jordan as well as Thomas Partey, to mention but a few.
So, having already booked their ticket, many expected Akonnor to use many of the fringe players – who are mostly home-based, in their second game against Sao Tome and Principe played at the Accra Sports Stadium on Sunday.
Interestingly, we saw the Ayew brothers and Partey playing for the entire duration in the comfortable 3-1 home win.
Many Ghanaians would have loved to see Great Olympics’ star player and the league’s finest performer, Gladson Awako, go the whole hog, instead of the 45 minutes time he was allotted after the break.
One wonders what Akonnor wanted from Andre by keeping him in the game for 90 minutes. That was absolutely unnecessary!
In his last-ditch attempt to get his name emblazoned on the scoring sheet, the Ghana captain nearly sustained a nasty injury as a Sao Tome defender lunged his foot on the path of Andre who for several minutes, had to receive medical attention on the pitch.
All would have put the blame squarely at the feet of the coach if something bad happens to Andre, an important player he would need in the nation’s Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers in June.
Having already booked a place for Cameroon, it was a big moment for the coach to have given the locals the opportunity to prove their mettle!
Do not forget, these boys have been in camp preparing feverishly for South Africa as well as Sunday’s tie for about a month or so.
So, what is the essence for keeping them if you cannot give majority of these huge local talents the chance to demonstrate the stuff they are made of!
Anyway, Akonnor’s former boss Kwasi Appiah – who steamrolled the Cameroon 2021 campaign, also deserves some laudation for the qualification.
When you consider the fact that South Africa failed to qualify for the biennial football showpiece after their 2-0 loss to Sudan on enemy territory, you would understand why the Stars and their technical staff deserve some pat on their back for making it.
Importantly, we must start drawing the ‘master plan’ for the Cameroon tournament now if we really want to break the 39-year-old trophy drought.
It goes ugly again!
HOOLIGANISM at our stadia is increasingly taking a very terrifying dimension and only last Sunday, yet another nasty incident was recorded at a division one league game.
Indeed, what was supposed to be an enthralling afternoon of football turned bloodily ugly when supporters of the home side, Wamanafo Mighty Royals, turned their frustrations on match officials, hammering them to a pulp, for perceived biased officiating.
This was after their game against Sunyani-based Bofoakwa Tano had ended in a scoreless stalemate.
It was a pathetic sight as many media outlets reported that the officials were beaten in a manner that suggested they were notorious armed robbers.
The officials of the game were Niatire Suntuo Aziz, Suleman Mohammed, Yakubu Abdul Rahman and fourth referee Hasim Yakubu.
Predictably, the Ghana FA was expected to ban the venue, as it had done in similar situations; and they did just that. But it is not enough!
Perhaps, the FA must be told in plain language that their best in the fight against these hooligans is not enough to halt these needless incidents. It is not enough at all if we only end up preventing the offending clubs from using their home facility after they had inflicted carnage on human beings.
We must go beyond banning venues after such sordid acts – and like ‘blood-thirsty’ wolves after their prey, hunt for these iniquitous band of hooligans.
We have failed to deal ruthlessly with pitch hooliganism over the years and it would continue to bite us hard until we see these merciless miscreants arrested, prosecuted and gaoled to serve as deterrent to others.
Fortuitously, the FA has their cameramen recording these games and they must be able to produce video evidence from which such barbaric fans can be smoked out.
We have toyed with this issue for far too long and that is why such perpetrators get emboldened over the years and continue to break more bones season-in-season-out.
It is lamentably becoming a regular feature in our domestic leagues and it does not encourage potential sponsors to want to invest in the game. We better halt it now or just throw our hands up in despair.
PlainTalk with JOHN VIGAH
Ghana Premier League side, Nations FC, may have suffered the drop in the just ended Premier League and are destined for a fresh campaign in the Division One League (DOL).
But they stand a huge chance of remaining in the elite stage of the game as they face Dreams FC in an epic MTN FA Cup final at the University of Ghana Sports Stadium tomorrow at 6pm.
Dreams FC have been there before; going ahead to taste the honours in the 2022-23 season after defeating King Faisal.
Coming from a season that saw them crawl from the initial stages of the league to finish on a respectable fourth position, they come in as strong favourites to double their honours in the nation’s second top football competition.
History favours them in this regard. On their first final, they conquered and based on this, connoisseurs of the game have tipped them to make it ‘two-on-two.’
But Nations FC have been empowered by the age-old adage that “He that is down need fear no fall.”
Nothing can be worse than suffering relegation and exiting the limelight as far as exposure is concerned.
But the FA offers a decent opportunity to make them stay relevant.
Conquering Dreams FC would not just make them MTN FA Cup champions. It will grant them the prestigious slot to represent Ghana in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) second tier club competition- the Confederations Cup.
With Dreams FC harbouring the same ambitions, the stage is, therefore, set for a final that promises to be explosive and uncompromising.
The situation of Nations FC might have come to many as a surprise, considering their promising start to the season, with their defence especially, marshalled by Black Stars defender, Razak Simpson, and colleague central defender, Raymond Grippman, earning a lot of reviews.
But despite the struggles they endured at certain times of their campaign, the MTN FA Cup always provided slices of good fortunes as they managed to navigate their way to the final.
Road to the top
Nations FC began the MTN FA Cup competition on a promising note, enjoying some good runs with a win over DOL Zone Two side, Ebony FC, in the Round of 64.
That landed them in a tricky encounter with another high-flying Zone Two candidate, AshantiGold SC, a side that eventually won the title from the zone to qualify to the Premier League, but escaped.
At the round of 16 stage, they encountered and defeated Ghana Premier League side, Swedru All Blacks, 2-1 to gain progression to the quarter final stage where they edged Berekum Chelsea on penalties.
A dicey semi-final awaited them against Aduana FC in Swedru. It was a game Nations was given little chance to escape considering Aduana FC’s form but once again, they conquered to secure a final berth.
In total, the Abrankese-based club have scored eight goals and conceded only two throughout the competition, making them one of the strongest defensive sides in the tournament.
For Dreams FC, they defeated Division One League Zone Three side, Semper Fi, 2-1 to progress to the next stage of the competition where they accounted for Division Two side, Asanska FC, 2-0.
That handed them a quarterfinal berth where they faced Inter Allies and drew one all before winning 4-3 on penalties.
The happiest moment in their success story was a 3-2 semi-final win over GPL winners, Medeama SC.
With that feat, Dreams have been touted as potential winners as the match comes at a time the Nations FC side may be psychologically down over the weight of the challenge they face in the next season.
However, the competition has gain notoriety for not following any form guide and outcomes mostly coming as major surprises.
In this regard, Dreams may be tipped as favourite candidates but though Nations are wounded, the stakes could revive an insatiable desire to apply the brakes to turn the dreams of Dreams FC into a nightmare.
Support
The support from MTN Ghana has no doubt improved competition among the clubs with the attractive incentive packages for participating clubs.
MTN Ghana, which is celebrating 30 years of operations in Ghana, formally became headline sponsors of the Ghana FA Cup in the 2010/2011 football season after the competition had returned from an eight-year hiatus.
The first edition under MTN sponsorship was won by Nania FC, who defeated Asante Kotoko 1–0 in the final at the Accra Sports Stadium.
Since then, the competition has been known as the MTN FA Cup, with MTN renewing its sponsorship several times — in 2013, 2017, 2020 and again for subsequent seasons.
By Andrew Nortey
The Black Stars have opened camp in Cardiff ahead of next week’s international friendly against Wales.
The team is being taken through training drills by head coach Carlos Queiroz.
Thirteen players trained at Dragon Park on Monday, with others expected to join the squad on Tuesday.
They include Ernest Nuamah, Brandon Thomas-Asante, Jordan Ayew, Caleb Yirenkyi, Abdul Fatawu Issahaku, Elisha Owusu, Gideon Mensah, Marvin Senaya, Jerome Opoku, Benjamin Asare, Joseph Anang, Solomon Agbasi, and Alidu Seidu.
The Black Stars will train in Cardiff for one week ahead of the international friendly against Wales on Tuesday, June 2, before traveling to the United States of America.
Coach Carlos Queiroz will use the period to assess his players before naming his final squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
Twenty-six players will be submitted to FIFA on Monday, June 1, as mandated by the competition regulations.
The Black Stars are drawn in Group L with Panama, England, and Croatia. They will open their World Cup campaign against Panama on June 17 in Toronto before facing England and Croatia in their other group matches.
