Sports
UNODC and GFA Foundation donate football & Sports items to Ankaful Prison
The Ghana Football Association, through the GFA Foundation and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), have presented football & various sports items and logistics to the Ankaful Maximum Security Prison, located in the Central Region, at an impressive ceremony.
The presentation of the football items and logistics is part of the GFA Foundation-Ghana Prisons Project, which seeks to use the power of football to promote the wellbeing, welfare, reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates of Ghana’s prisons into society.
The presentation of the sports items, including basketball hoops and balls, footballs, and volleyballs presented by the UNODC, was in line with the “Strengthening the compliance of the Ghana Prisons Service with the Nelson Mandela Rules” project.
The Ankaful Maximum Security Prison is the first prison facility under the second phase of the GFA Foundation-Ghana Prisons Project to receive football items including jerseys, footballs, goalkeepers’ gloves and sets of football hose.
The other items are whistles and caution cards (yellow & red cards) and ball pump needles.
In a short meeting with the Regional Commander and senior officers of the facility, the Director of the GFA Foundation, Malcolm Frazier Appeadu commended them for the hard work and the diligence which ensures the safe custody of prisoners.
He admonished them to make good use of the items donated so as to derive the maximum benefit from the project.
In response, the Regional Commander and the Officer-in-Charge of the Ankaful Maximum Security Prison, Deputy Director of Prisons, Alfred Codjoe thanked the GFA and the UNODC for the donation and the upcoming training programmes.
“Sports and especially football and other physical activities help in managing and safeguarding the welfare and security of prisoners especially those here with long prison sentences,”he added.
He further expressed his gratitude to the Central Regional Football Association for their continuous support and assistance in organizing football matches for the inmates and officers at the facility
The GFA Foundation – Ghana Prisons Project is based on three pillars: The first pillar is the donation of football items and logistics; the two other equally important pillars are coaching and refereeing training programmes for inmates and officers, and advocacy workshops to sensitize the public and the citizenry on the negative impact of discrimination and stigmatization of prisons and prisoners.
An exhibition match played between the officers and inmates ended in a goalless draw.
A former Black Stars player, Emmanuel Agyeman Badu who was the football legend and icon for the day, as part of the advocacy against the negative perception of prisons and prisoners, expressed his excitement at being at a prison facility for the first time and seeing the inmates in high spirits and interacting with them.
He encouraged the inmates to be of good behaviour and cooperate with the officers and be law abiding. “I will visit you again with my former Black Stars colleagues to play a match and I can assure you that we will win”, he stated confidently.
The UNODC Prison and Penal Reform Project-Ghana were represented at the presentation ceremony by Mr. Christoph Capelle, Project Coordinator, Helena Adobea Ofori, Associate Programme Officer, Caleb Elorm Agodzo, Administrative Officer, Mr. Tony Amaechi, International Consultant, and DSP. Stephen Aboagye, Focal Person for Training, GPS/UNODC/INL project.
Accompanying the Director of the GFA Foundation were Mr. Kwame Koramoah and Emmanuel Kpab from the GFA Head Office.
Senior Officers of the Prison facility present were Second-in-Command, Assistant Director of Prisons, Roger Azanya, CSP Jennifer Addae, Physician Assistant, Supt Frank Ameho, Head of Sports, ASP Emmanuel Otoo, Deputy Head of Sports, SCO Amoah Saah – Senior Chief Officer Administration, all of the Ankaful Maximum Security Prison and ASP Naomi Fainusatu Abdulai, Head of Ghana Prisons Football Teams.
The first phase of the GFA Foundation-Ghana Prisons project covered 6 prison facilities, these being the Senior Correctional Centre (Borstal Home) in the Greater Accra Region, Sunyani Male and Female Prisons in Bono Region, Akuse Local Prison and Nsawam Medium Security Prison in the Eastern Region and the Winneba Local Prison in the Central Region.
Sports
GFA issues statement on Black Star AFCON qualifying fiasco
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) wishes to express its sincerest apologies to the good people of Ghana for the Black Stars’ inability to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2025.
We understand the disappointment and frustration this failure has caused, and we share in the pain and sadness of our beloved fans. We acknowledge that the team’s performance did not meet the high expectations of the nation, and for that, we are truly sorry.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude to our loyal football fans for their unwavering support and encouragement throughout the qualifying campaign. Your passion and dedication are what drive us to strive for excellence.
Going forward, the Executive Council, at its meeting of Wednesday, 20th November, 2024, took the following key decisions:
- Immediate dissolution of the Management Committee of the senior national football team, the Black Stars. In doing so, we sincerely thank the members of the Committee for their service to Ghana Football over the years.
- The Executive Council will meet the Head Coach of the Black Stars, Mr. Otto Addo, on the 27th of November, 2024, to discuss his Technical report on the just ended AFCON qualifiers and the overall performance of the Technical team since assuming duty earlier this year.
Ghana Football Retreat
Given the passion and concern shown by members and stakeholders of Ghana Football as well as the general public, the GFA shall hold a Ghana Football Retreat to which members and all stakeholders shall be invited.
Members and stakeholders such as SWAG and the Media, National Sports Authority, PFAG, former captains and players, coaches, supporters, Football enthusiasts, Sports-related professionals (Medics, Economists, Marketers etc), and Opinion leaders (including traditional rulers) will be invited to the Retreat.
The Ministries of Sports, Finance and Education, and key Authorities such as Ghana Revenue Authority and Ghana Tourism Authority will be represented.
The meeting shall be held on the 28th of November, 2024, at the Ghanaman Soccer Center of Excellence, with the primary purpose of soliciting views and perspectives from stakeholders of Ghana Football. The output from this Retreat shall be used to develop a roadmap for enhancing the performance of the Black Stars and our other national teams.
We appreciate the support and patience of the Ghanaian people and look forward to making amends in the future.
…… END ……
Sports
Give local players the chance now
Withdrawals from national teams assignment has cast a slur on this week’s selections released by Football Associations globally.
England’s Three Lions had about six players withdrawing to take care of minor injuries suffered from the intense matches of the English Premier League (EPL), European Champions League competition and other club commitments.
Others like Belgium and Switzerland have suffered similar fate as countries prepare to honour international matches.
And Ghana’s Black Stars have not been spared in the season of withdrawals.
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) on Monday reported that many as eight players had withdrawn from the squad announced by Coach Otto Addo for a double-header against Angola and Niger.
Ahead of their first training session for the Angola and Niger games, Antoine Semenyo, Inaki Williams, Jonas Adjetey, Tariq Lamptey, Jerome Opoku, Alexander Djiku, Ibrahim Osman and Joseph Painstil all gave reasons to be excused from duty.
Inaki Williams picked up a hamstring injury on November 7 and has since not been able to train; Tariq Lamptey had a calf discomfort that got aggravated last week, and currently undergoing rehabilitation with his club; Jonas Adjetey is on his way to full recovery but had a setback in their last League game, while Jerome Opoku suffered a chronic back pain which got worse during a Super Lig game against Besiktas on Sunday.
Antoine Semenyo is nursing an injury of the patella tendon due to overload of games, Alexander Djiku suffered an aggravation of an existing hamstring that got him substituted in their last game on Sunday; Ibrahim Osman picked up a hamstring injury in his last outing for his club which got him substituted at half time with Joseph Painstil’s reason personal.
The mass withdrawals only goes to confirm calls to take a second look as the congested football fixtures European clubs and players have complained bitterly about.
Ghana has since invited six players to replace the eight that withdrawn. My disappointment, however, lies in the fact that no local player was picked among the replacement to add to the three announced in the first call up.
Asante Kotoko’s Emmanuel Antwi, Razak Simpson of Nations FC and Samartex FC’s Isaac Afful were announced in the first 23-man squad announced by Otto Addo.
That sparked excitement among followers of the local game but expected the six replacement to have at least three more of the local based professionals.
That would have increased the local representation to six and would have been in contention in getting one or two starting roles.
Otto Addo deserves commendation for extending invitations to players from the Ghana league but the time to go a step further by giving them playing chances should be now.
With a thick cloud hanging around Ghana’s qualification and hopes at an all-time low, this should be the time to put some faith in players featuring in the GPL.
Ghana should be guided by the reasons that have called for the massive withdrawals in several national teams in order to avoid such shocks in future.
Morale is low in the team over the magnitude of a task for Sudan to lose all two games and for the Stars to win all with their current form.
But those two matches remain high-profile enough for the local based players to use to justify their inclusion for places in the national team
By Andrew Nortey
