Management Committee Chairman of the Ghana U20 side, Dr. Randy Abbey has met the 2020 WAFU U20 winning team on Sunday following their return from Benin at their base at the M-Plaza Hotel.

Dr. Abbey, was supposed to have led the team to the tournament but delegated his Vice, Albert Commey to lead the team due to some pressing demands.

Following the wonderful feat of the team at the tournament, beating Burkina Faso 2-1 in the final to lift the trophy, Dr. Abbey met the team to congratulate them for their achievement.

He also used the opportunity to discuss the program of the team as they turn attention to the U20 AFCON slated for Mauritania next year.

“From the bottom of my heart, and from the Executive Committee of the Ghana Football Association, we are grateful and proud of you,” he said.

He also assured the team of all their entitlements as they prepare to break camp and regroup later in January.

The Black Satellites will break camp today from their base at the M-Plaza Hotel for two weeks and restart training for the U20 AFCON in 2021.

Ghana won the U20 WAFU Championship on Saturday after a sterling performance against Burkina Faso at the Charles de Gualle Stadium in Porto Norvo.

Despite a sluggish start to th competition, the Satellites meandered their way through and advanced to the finals to beat the Burkinabes.

FootballmadeinGhana

Ghana on Saturday, December, 19, 2020 won the 2020 WAFU Zone B Cup of Nations in Benin. The Black Satellites came from behind to beat Burkina Faso 2-1 at the Charles de Gaulle stadium in Porto-Novo, Benin.

The Young Stallions had the best attacking machinery in the competition scoring 8 goals in four games including a 4-1 win against Ivory Coast in the semi-finals.

They started the game strongly dictating play in the opening minutes of the encounter.

They were rewarded in the 16th minute when Kouame Jean Fiacre Botue broke the deadlock as he pounced on a error in the Ghana defence and hit the ball past Ibrahim Danlad.

With just about 5 minutes to end the first half, the Black Satellites got the equalizer through Daniel Afriyie Barnie who latched onto a Percious Boah free-kick in the 40th minute.

Burkina Faso nearly increased their lead before the break but the crossbar came to the rescue of the Black Satellites as Hamed Quattara cross graced the woodwork.

That was the last action in the first 45 minutes of the game as the teams headed to the locker room for a break. The first half ended with both sides levelled up.

Danger man Percious Boah once again scored from a free kick in the 79th minute from 35 yards to increase the lead for the Black Satellites.

The former Still Believe striker took his goal tally to two goals after netting against Nigeria in Ghana’s opening game.

The Burkinabe's complained to the referee the ball had not closed the line but the assistant line II had none of it, with the center referee Clement Franklin Kpan from Cote d'Ivoire pointing to the centre line for play to restart.

The Black Satellites held onto the lead to clinch their first WAFU title in this category.

Ghana and Burkina Faso have already booked a place in next year's Africa U-20 Cup of Nations to be staged in Mauritania after making it to the finals in this zone.

GFA COMMUNICATIONS

Decathlon Ghana, sponsors of the Ghana Women’s Football League has organized a special end of year get together for staff and a few customers in Accra.

“The happiness of my Teammates is of utmost importance to me” said Kwasi Tabury, the Country Manager.

They are the first beneficiaries of our Mission and Dream of 'Changing Lives through Sports', and as Ambassadors of this Mission, they in turn help our Users and Customers to benefit from it as well.

Last Saturday, 19th December during our 'End of Year Get Together', we celebrated our wonderful Teammates for an amazing year done, even with all the challenges we faced. It was a fun filled evening with so many activities and exchange of Gifts.

Kudos Team and Congratulations to you all. Your hard work, dedication and commitment to this Project has really paid off.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and A Prosperous New Year. – Kwasi Tabury posted on Facebook

By Elizabeth Alhassan / Sammy Heywood Okine

Johnson Smith has assumed the Head Coach role at Asante Kotoko after Maxwell Konadu parted ways with the club in the early hours of Friday, December 18, 2020.

The departure of Coach Konadu follows a 1-0 defeat against Great Olympics in an outstanding match-day three encounter played at the Accra Sports Stadium on Thursday.

The club announced this decision on their twitter page, which said ” Kotoko Sporting Club wishes to inform the general public that it has decided to part ways with Coach Maxwell Konadu with immediate effect.

“Coach Johnson Smith has been appointed to lead the team in the interim,” ,” the statement said

Smith won his first match in charge of Kotoko against Dreams on Sunday. He must prove himself in the CAF Champions League clash against Al-Hilal next week.

From Sammy Heywood Okine

Felix Hammond stunned Ghana Tennis Federation (GTF) and Tennis Professional of Ghana (TPG) No.1 Johnson Acquah to win his second National Ranking for the year.

 Felix played magnificently in a 4-6,7-6(4),6-1 victory at National Tennis Center, Accra.

Johnson had been a strong favourite to finally get his hands on the ultimate after getting to nine finals this year and beating Reginald Okantey in the semifinals, but he was outplayed by Felix Hammond. 

"It was an incredible atmosphere on court, I felt emotion like I never have before," Hammond said.

At 4-4 in the first set, Johnson hit a barrage of winners that left Hammond looking lost for a response which resulted in Johnson winning the set 6-4.

Having lost the first set, Hammond bounced back to win the second 7-6(4)

In the final set; a volley, a backhand and a serve got him out of trouble and he rode the wave of four successive points into the next game after deploying two screaming backhand passes to lead 4-1. He then steered another of those trademark backhands down the line and raised his arms in triumph.

Hammond walks away with a thousand Ghana cedis and a giant trophy while Johnson also takes home five hundred Ghana cedis.

The weeklong events was orgasnized by GTF with  support from International Tennis Federation (ITF), Tennis Foundation Ghana (TFG) and Universal Tennis Rating (UTR).

Story: Gabriel Amoakoh

The Vice-Chairman of the Ghana U-20 Management Committee, Albert Commey has congratulated the Black Satellites for winning the WAFU Zone B U-20 Cup of Nations tournament.

The Black Satellites faced well groomed opponents from Niger, Cote d Ivoire and Bukina Faso and proved to be the best in the sub region.

Albert Commey has encouraged them to stay focused and fight for victories in coming tournaments.

“We play the game in our minds, concentration and focus on winning before we enter the battle ground, so we are sure of success ” the Vice-Chairman of the Ghana U-20 Management Committee said.

He expressed that the team is a bunch of skillful and talented young footballers with big dreams to become super stars.

Most expects of the game believe a very prepared Black Satellites can become a formidable Black Stars in future.

By Sammy Heywood Okine

Mr. George Lamptey, President of the Ghana Boxing Federation (GBF) says his outfit deserves to be awarded because despite the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic which halted many sporting activities, they were able to qualify two boxers to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

He said though they went through many difficulties and challenges, they went to Dakar, Senegal where they did very well as most of the Black Bombers reached the quarter finals.

He expressed that the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) which has taken up the responsibility of rewarding outstanding sports personalities and institutions must consider to motivate the Black Bombers, especially 19 year old sensation, Samuel Takyi (Amateur Boxer of the Year) who beat the African champion and skipper, Suleiman Tetteh who also deserves a special award for qualifying to another Olympic Tournament after London 2012.

He said Coach Ofori Asare also deserves special mention as he and his able assistants, Vincent Akai Nettey and Lartekwei Lartey did extremely well in the year under review.

"There were female boxers who represented Ghana for the first time in Olympic qualifiers" he said.

George Lamptey commended the few sports journalists who devote some time and space to promote boxing.

He also thanked the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC), Geodrill, Azumah Nelson, Alhaji Inusah and the people and companies who supported amateur boxing in 2020.

He was however sad that some lives like ex President Rawlings, Col. J. E. Sharp, former world champion Alfred Kotey, rising star boxer John Commey, who is a member of the Bombers were lost in the year.

By Sammy Heywood Okine

Alhassan Refiatu is emerging as a promising striker in the United States Women's College Soccer.

The former Northern Ladies striker is a first year student at Navarro College in California.

She left Northern Ladies in 2019 having been awarded a scholarship to attend School in Navarro.

The attacking forward was brought to Northern Ladies in 2018 to replace departure Makarama Abdullai who have Secured a scholarship to continue her education in the United States.

Refiatu played her first competitive game for Northern Ladies in the Kumbungu Women's Unity Games and she won the Golden boot with 9 goals.

Refiatu Scored a total of 19 goals for Northern Ladies before leaving to the United States. Her partnership with Jafaru Rahama was described by many as deadly.

Find and Watch her video highlights and exploits in the United States.

From Sammy Heywood Okine

SUMMARY: Astana, Kazakhstan: Super Middle: Aidos Yerbossynuly (15-0) W TKO 3 Issah Samir (19-1).

Kazakh Yerbossynuly stopped Issah Samir in a muddled ending. Yerbossynuly was in switch from the start and over the first two rounds was landing strong rights to the head and left hooks to the body.

Samir is realy only a middleweight and was slow carrying 7 ½lbs more than in his last fight but showed some fire at times. In the third after Yerbossynuly had scored with some heavy punches Samir tried to hold.

Yerbossynuly swung him round and into the rope. With Samir side on to him Yerbossynuly reached around and connected with left hooks to the body and a right to the head. As Samir dropped to his haunches Yerbossynuly landed a right to the head.

Samir got up and complained about the punches then ignored the referee stalking up and down beside the ropes whilst the referee counted to eight and with Samir still refusing to acknowledge the count the referee waived the fight over.

A confused ending but Yerbossynuly was on his way to a win. He retains a whole slew of titles in the WBC Asian, WBA International and WBO Global. First fight outside Ghana and first fight for 16.

Abraham Tabul  also suffered his 4th defeat in his last 5 fights as he lost to Kazakhstan's Semenov who had only one career fight before Wednesday night.

Kwahu Tyson made it three losses out of three for Ghanaian boxers in Kazakhstan this past Wednesday after falling to 22 year old Bek Nurmaganbet.

From Sammy Heywood Okine

Moses Antwi Benefo aka P J Mozee has resigned from his role as the Communications Manager for Asante Kotoko.

The award-winning sports broadcaster was named as the Communications Director of the club when Nana Yaw Amponsah was named as the Chief Executive Officer of the club.

Antwi-Benefo replaced Kenedy Boakye-Ansah.

He left his job as an aide to the Chief Executive officer of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Dr Desmond Kofi Kodua Sarpong to pick up the vacant position at Asante Kotoko.

However, he resignation comes almost 12 hours after the club announced parting ways with head coach Maxwell Konadu.

In a letter, of which a copy is published below, the renowned broadcaster cited “personal and professional reasons” for his decision to quit the management role.

“This is not an easy decision to make but I ought to, and I appreciate your support over the course of my employment in the Club.

“I truly value the experience, training, and knowledge I gained over the past few months. It has been a pleasure working with you and the entire team,” portions of the resignation letter read.

Read in full:

Post Office Box 2059,

Kumasi.

18th December, 2020.

The Chief Executive,

Asante Kotoko Sporting Club,

Post Office Box 2274,

Adum- Kumasi.

Dear Sir,

RESIGNATION LETTER

I am writing shortly on the caption above. I write to provide you with my formal notice of resignation as the Communications Manager of Asante Kotoko Sporting Club due to personal and professional reasons. This decision takes effect today, December 18, 2020.

This is not an easy decision to make but I ought to, and I appreciate your support over the course of my employment in the Club. I truly value the experience, training, and knowledge I gained over the past few months. It has been a pleasure working with you and the entire team.

I would like to thank the Sole Shareholder of Asante Kotoko SC-His Royal Majesty Otumfour Osei Tutu II, the unalloyed Supporters of our dear Club, the Board of Directors, the Technical Team and the Playing Body for an opportunity to serve the Club.

I wish you all the best as Asante Kotoko SC continues to flourish.

Yours sincerely,

Moses Antwi Benefo.

CC: Administrative and Operations Manager