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Hearts eager to break Aduana Stars in Accra

• Sam Adams - Aduana forward

• Sam Adams – Aduana forward

 The Accra Sports Stadium will be fired up tomor­row when Hearts of Oak welcome league leaders, Aduana Stars to a tantalis­ing betPawa Premier League match-day 18 clash.

The first round saw the visitors snatch a narrow 1-0 victory over the 10-man Pho­bians under the former Coach Samuel Boadu on match-day one.

Former forward Bright Adjei scored the only goal for the ‘Ogya’ lads at the Nana Agyeman Badu I Park.

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In their last meeting, Hearts recorded a 3-1 victo­ry over Berekum Chelsea at home and will aim to contin­ue their fine form, despite conceding one defeat on home soil against Bechem United which ended 2-1.

The game will provide Hearts with a huge advantage to close up the gap, should they emerge victors.

Aduana Stars are un­doubtedly the side with the best away record, having lost three, won won four and drawn two.

Despite top scorer Bright Adjei moving to Tanzania, the two-time Premier League winners have been solid with two wins and two draws in their last four outings.

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Tipped as favourites for the title, Coach Paa Kwesi Fabin will count on the indi­vidual brilliance of Justice Torsutsey, Sam Adams, Adom Frimpong among others to pull the strings when it gets tougher.

Reigning champions Asante Kotoko will make a trip to the Nana Kronmansah Park to face Nsoatreman today in a dicey clash.

Kotoko will need a win to move into the top three after their 2-0 defeat to Dreams FC last weekend saw the Porcu­pine Warriors fall to fourth on the league log.

High-flying Bechem United will host Accra Great Olym­pics at the Nana Fosu Gyea­bour Park, while Tamale Unit­ed welcome struggling Karela United at the Aliu Mahama Stadium on Sunday.

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At the Dawu Theatre of Dreams, Dreams FC will hope to make it two straight wins when they lock horns with impressive Gold Stars after they cruised pass Kotoko 2-0.

The Nsenkyire Sports Stadium will see debutants Samartex tussle it out with Real Tamale United while poor performing King Fais­al slug it out with Berekum Chelsea to round off the weekend.

Medeama SC and Legon Cities were expected to slot it out at the Akoon Tarkwa stadium yesterday.

By Linus Siaw Nartey

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Sports

Gaging sports gains in 2024

Kurt Okraku
Kurt Okraku

In 10 days’ time, the year 2024 will pass as one of the most eventful years for sports as a nation.

It may be so due to the myriad of sports activities that got the various national teams and individual clubs busy with international competitions.

Mustapha Ussif – Minister, Youth and Sports

But one may also be right in asking what is there to show for those adventures.

Truthfully, one would prefer to walk from Accra to Tema than attempting to answer such a question.

Although there were a few gains to celebrate, the weight of failure clearly overshadows it and leaves sports fanatics in wonder land; uncertain about the direction of sports in Ghana.

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Taking stock of the country’s fortunes regarding sports is more or less an annual ritual that usually provide similar answers years in and out; and this year will be no exception.

On our sports calendar, football has been the busiest with the Black Stars involved in FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFCON 2025 qualifiers.

The latter left Ghanaians heartbroken with an unprecedented outcome.

In a group that had Angola, Sudan and Niger, the Black Stars failed to register a single win; losing three games and drawing the same number to finish at the rock bottom of the table with three points.

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Eventually, the group was won by Angola’s Palencas Negras and Kwesi Appiah’s Sudan.

The USA, Canada and Mexico World Cup 2026 qualifiers, however, appears to be going well for the Stars with Ghana in second position behind Comoros with the same number of points – nine, out of four matches.

Other countries in Ghana’s group (Group I) include Madagascar, Mali, Central African Republic and Chad, the whipping boys in the group.

The Stars started the qualifers well, chalking a 1-0 home win over Madagascar but was pegged back by Comoros which beat Ghana 1-0.

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The team, however, bounced back from that disappointment to beat Mali 2-1 in Bamako in one of the team’s finest performances in the year under review and recorded a 4-3 victory over the Central African Republic (CAF).

At the centre of the Black Stars performance storm was Head Coach Otto Addo who came under an avalanche of criticism for the team’s poor performance.

Ghana Football Association president, Kurt Okraku was also not spared of the backlash as his resignation became the clarion call on the lips of many.

But the two have shown they have very thick skin or might have developed a ‘dead goat’ syndrome, granting them the immunity to withstand the fiery darts of their critics.

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On the continental level, FC Samartex and Nsoatreman FC made attempts to rescue Ghana’s free fall but that failed to materialise as their challenges in the CAF Champions League and Confederations Cup competitions collapsed before the league stages.

But there was success for Ghana in football following gold medal performances from the male and female teams in the African Games football competition.

It appears some successes were chalked at the sub-continental level with Kurt Okraku reaping a few results from the WAFU B level.

The Golden Arms, the national armwrestling team was obviously the best team having snatched a total of 41 medals at the African Games consisting of eight gold, 19 silver and 14 bronze medals.

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Boxing recorded seven medals, athletics had six, weightlifting had three medals, hockey had two, and taekwondo recorded two medals while swimming had two and volleyball, one.

At the Paris Olympic Games, it was more of participation and acting as tourists than winning medals as Ghana fell short in all the disciplines competed.

But once again, it exposed the issues about poor preparation of athletes and lack of proper facilities back home to help local athletes.

Perhaps, one of the biggest shocks was the failure of the national boxing team, the Black Bombers to qualify for the Olympics.

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Generally, it was not an encouraging performance from sports in the year. It actually marked a dip in performance as professional boxing failed to produce a world champion just like athletics, taekwondo, handball, badminton, table tennis, tennis and the others failed in their respective bids.

With a new government set to assume the reins of power and sports development to be championed by a new Sports Minister, it will be incumbent on the responsible agencies for sports development and promotion like the National Sports Authority (NSA) and the various sports federations to put their act together and work towards reviving Ghana sports to its past status.

By Andrew Nortey

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Sports

 Resetting Ghana sports

John Dramani Mahama

 In a few weeks’ time, returnee president, John DramaniMahama, will assume the reins of governance after taking his Oath of Office on January 7, 2025.

This follows the National Democratic Congress (NDC) historic feat in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections held on December 7.

John Dramani Mahama

That ended the eight-year reign of President Nana AddoDankwaAkufo- Addo and his vice, DrMahamuduBawumia, of the New Patriotic Party.

It’s been less than a week after JDM’s declaration by the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission who doubles as the Returning Officer of the presidential poll, Mrs Jean Mensa, but several calls and suggestions have been flying across the corridors of power.

For bitter NDC faithful, top NPP officials who were alleged to have been involved in shoddy deals should be whisked away by the police or the respective agency in charge of investigation.

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Others have urged the new team to hit the ground running in a bid to alleviate the pain and difficulties in which Ghanaians find themselves.

Followers of sports are not left out in this regard. They want to see a lot of changes as part of a mammoth agenda to RESET the nation.

This may be coming on the back of the reality that Ghana sports in the past few years have been on a backward trajectory.

At the last Olympic Games in Paris, members of Team Ghana were mere passengers and tourists. The only excitement seen on the faces of Ghanaians was not as a result of a medal won but the sight of watching members fly Ghana flags during the opening ceremony.

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The celebration was about the projection of Ghana as active and regular participants at the games but always far away from the medal podium.

The height of the disappointment was the Black Stars’ failure to qualify for the 2025 AFCON – the first miss in 20 years.

In a qualifying group that had Angola, Sudan and Niger, the Black Stars under Coach Otto Addo ended the qualifiers winless – drawing three and lost same.

That is not to suggest that the other national teams are performing any better.

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Apart from the national U-20 team, the Black Satellites, that triumphed in the football event of the last edition of the African Games hosted in Accra, Ghana’s success in football has been in minor competitions in the West Africa Football Union (WAFU) B region.

It has been so with many or all of the sports disciplines operating under the National Sports Authority (NSA). Athletics, boxing (both pro and amateur), handball, volleyball, basketball, taekwondo, kickboxing, tennis, table tennis, cycling etc. are experiencing similar fate.

Maybe, the only shining light is the sport of arm-wrestling, Ghana’s Messiah at the African Games.

Obviously, this is not a good record for a country that considers herself as a sports nation and clearly remains one of the first and foremost sectors that needs resetting.

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What is of paramount interest to Ghanaians at the moment are the qualifiers for the USA, Canada and Mexico 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Fortunately, the Black Stars languish in second spot with an important away victory over Mali doing the magic.

Under the upcoming administration, fans must see a new composure and attitude reset to meet the challenges to qualify for the World Cup.

Football on the local scene must also see an improvement in teams’ performances and administration.

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The brains administering the game must also be reset to understand and admit that the local players are capable of delivering the same results from the foreign legion at a much cheaper cost.

The other disciplines would also need massive push to come up but in all of this, sports with comparative advantages must get the nod over those that should be reduced to recreational sports.

Above all, the sector will need a supervisor with a good knowledge about the area to lead the resetting agenda in order not to lose focus or fall to the conspiracytheories of the sophisticated administrators.

 By Andrew Nortey

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