Hearts of Oak head coach, Aboubakar Ouattara, has ripped into football administrators for the kind of contracts players in the Ghana Premier League sign.
According to him, the nature of the contracts agreed between clubs and players is not professional and does not happen anywhere.
In recent times, players have left Ghanaian clubs at crucial times of the season due to the contracts they signed when joining and Ouattara didn’t shy away from bashing them.
“It’s only in Ghana that I see a player’s contract end in September or December,” he said during a media briefing on Thursday, July 25. “It’s not normal for a contract to end just a week before the league starts. It’s not professional.”
Ouattara is determined to fine-tune Hearts’ squad not to repeat their performance from the 2023/24 season where they finished in the bottom half of the table.
Kudjoe Fianoo, a member of Accra Great Olympics’ newly formed three-man management committee, has emphasized that their immediate focus is to appoint a new head coach, which will most likely be followed by the dissolution of the interim committee.
Last week, the club’s board chairman, Amarkai Amarteifio, announced the dissolution of the club’s Management and Technical Teams following their relegation from the Ghana Premier League.
In an interview on Channel One TV, Fianoo explained the decision to dissolve the management board after the club’s relegation.
During the previous season, Great Olympics finished 16th in the league standings, which consisted of 18 teams. Throughout the season, they went through three different head coaches, namely Annor Walker, Jimmy Cobblah, and Henry Orlando Wellington.
Fianoo expressed his belief that the newly formed committee might not oversee the entire season. Currently, they are actively searching for a coach.
“I don’t think that this committee is going to see through the entire season. As we speak, we are on the search for a coach,” Fianoo stated. “When we get the coach, we will see some names sent to the Board for consideration and then we will form the management committee that will be in charge of the day-to-day running of the club. So our mission is to make sure that we fill in the gap as the club prepares to move into Division One.”
Great Olympics are determined to rebuild and make a strong comeback, starting with a strategic appointment of a capable head coach to lead the team in the upcoming season.
hana Premier League side FC Samartex has denied sanctioning the departure of midfielder Emmanuel Keyekeh despite the player reportedly joining Tanzanian top-flight side Singida Black Stars.
Keyekeh was reported to have signed for Singida over the weekend and made his debut for them earlier this week in their cup game against APR.
In a sensational twist, Samartex has claimed that there is still an existing contract with Keyekeh, who is currently in Tanzania.
Keyekeh was the skipper of a Samartex team that secured the Ghana Premier League title by 10 points last season. He made 32 appearances for the Samreboi-based club, scoring five goals and bagging a further two assists.
His incredible performances saw him win the Home-based Men’s Player of the Year award in the recently held Ghana Football Awards.
2023/24 MTN FA Cup champions, Nsoatreman FC, will face TP Elect Sport of Chad in the first preliminary round of next season’s CAF Confederation Cup (CAFCC).
The Nsoatre-based club were put in Pot 1 ahead of the draw which took place on Thursday, July 11.
Making their debut in the continental club competition for the first time, the Ghana Premier League side will face the Chad outfit looking to go past the first round of the qualifying phase.
Nsoatreman will play the first leg of the encounter at home before travelling to Chad for the return fixture.
The Ghanaian club will face either Algeria’s CS Constantine or Police FC of Rwanda in the second round of the preliminary stage if they are able to go past the Elect Sport hurdle.
The first round of the prelims is set to be played between August 16 and August 25 while the second round is scheduled for September 13 and 22.
Nsoatreman booked their place in the competition after beating Bofoakwa Tano in the final of last season’s MTN FA Cup which was played last month.
Yaw Preko’s men will be hoping to replicate the success of Dreams FC who reached the semis of the Confederation Cup on their first attempt.
Ghana Premier League champions, FC Samartex, have been drawn against Cameroonian side Victoria United in the first round of the preliminary stages for the 2024/25 CAF Champions League.
The draw for the prelims of the competition was held on Thursday, July 11, with Samartex in Pot 3 ahead of the draw.
The Samreboi-based side sealed a spot in the Champions League following their triumph at the end of the 2023/24 Ghana Premier League season which saw them beat Accra Lions to the league title.
The first task for the Timber giants will be against Victoria United who were winners of the Cameroonian league.
Nurudeen Amadu’s side will travel to Cameroon for the first leg of the game before returning home for the reverse fixture.
The games for the first preliminary round are slated for August 16-25.
Should Samartex beat Victoria United at the end of the two games, they would be up against Niger’s AS GNN or Morocco’s Raja Club Athletic in the second phase of the qualifiers.
The dates for the second round are scheduled for September 13-22.
Samartex will be making their maiden appearance in the CAF competition and would look to reach the group stages before hoping to go a step further than Medeama SC who exited in the group stage.
Medeama have announced the sudden demise of their former striker, Hans Kwofie, following a fatal accident on Friday, June 21, 2024.
The crash happened at Dadwen in the Ashanti Region when the 35-year-old was on his way to his hometown, Dompim Pepesa.
Kwofie was the Ghana Premier League goal king in the 2017/18 season after scoring 17 goals for AshantiGold.
The veteran striker started his career at Nsoatre Manchester United before playing for the likes of Heart of Lions, Bechem United, Legon Cities and Medeama in the Ghana league.
Swiss Super League side, St. Gallen, have announced the signing of Ghanaian defender Stephan Ambrosius.
The Black Stars defender joins the Swiss outfit on a three-year deal which will keep him at the club until 2027.
Ambrosius joins St. Gallen as a free agent following the end of his contract with German side Hamburger SV.
The Ghanaian joined Hamburger in 2012 and played through all of the junior ranks before making it to the senior teams.
The central defender made 18 appearances for the club last season in Bundesliga 2 having returned from his loan spell at Karlsruher SC at the end of the 2022/23 campaign.
Ambrosius has been capped twice for the Black Stars both coming in friendly games last year.
The Ghanaian will don jersey number 5 at his new club and share the same locker room with national teammates Lawrence Ati-Zigi and Musah Nuhu.
Asante Kotoko striker Kalo Ouattara has bid farewell to the club following his release, part of a massive clear-out that saw 18 players let go in less than 24 hours.
This significant overhaul is part of a comprehensive rebuild process aimed at revitalizing the team for the upcoming season.
The 22-year-old Ouattara, who joined Asante Kotoko at the start of the season from Berekum Chelsea, featured in 24 games and scored four goals, including one in the final game of the season.
Despite his efforts, the Porcupine Warriors finished the season in a disappointing sixth place with 49 points, 12 behind champions Samartex.
In a heartfelt message shared on social media, Ouattara expressed his gratitude to the club, his teammates, and the fans, with a special mention to the club’s video analysts.
Read the full note below:
“I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to each of you as I prepare to move on from my time with Asante Kotoko.
I want to say a special thank you to the video Analysts of Asante Kotoko for their motivation every time and their dedication in making me a better player.
While my journey here has come to an end, the experiences and memories we’ve shared will forever hold a special place in my heart.
To my fellow players, it has been an honor to stand alongside each of you on the field.
And to our loyal supporters, your unwavering enthusiasm and encouragement have fueled our determination and made every match a memorable experience. Your presence at the games and your messages of support online have meant the world to me and the entire team.
As I embark on the next chapter of my journey, I will carry with me the lessons learned during my time at Kotoko.
Warm regards,
Kalo Ouattara”
Ouattara’s departure is part of the club’s strategic plan to rebuild and strengthen the squad for a more competitive performance in the next season.
The season is over and, of course, it’s time for drama at Asante Kotoko (wait your turn, rivals Accra Hearts of Oak; yours would probably be more spectacular given the rubbish, near-tragic campaign you just had).
It was only last Sunday that the Porcupine Warriors thrashed Bofoakwa Tano 3-1 to finish sixth — the club’s lowest placement since 2010, when they also ended up in an identical position. Had they played much of the 2023/24 campaign the way they did on its last matchday — with a flourish even the relentless rain couldn’t dampen — Kotoko would likely have done much better on the final standings.
Clearly, change — of a significant kind — would be needed to ensure next season aligns more with the club’s lofty standards and expectations.
But, even so, nobody quite envisaged the scale of that change being as massive as this week’s announcements by the club on its official social media platforms revealed: as many as 18 outgoings from the playing body (and there is no promise there wouldn’t be more between now and the start of the campaign to come).
Asante Kotoko has this afternoon parted ways mutually with the following players.
The profiles of the affected players — from veterans (Danlad Ibrahim) and cult favourites (Georges Mfegue) to ‘starboys’ (Isaac Oppong) and flops (Kalo Ouattara) — varied as widely as the reaction among the fanbase to the development, but there has been little about the collective feedback to suggest any measure of pleasure about the wholesale nature of these exits.
It’s not just about Kotoko losing so many players (all but one of whom arrived only in the last four years) without getting a pesewa in return — even if that is now an admittedly concerning, perennial feature of the club’s transfer business — as it is about losing so many players who’d walk straight into the starting lineups of some of the other teams in the league, potentially even to the benefit of direct rivals.
Those fears aren’t unfounded, given there are very recent examples of such stories.
The division’s freshly-crowned topscorer, Berekum Chelsea’s Stephen Amankona, was let go last year after a couple of admittedly underwhelming seasons. A slightly earlier departee, midfielder Emmanuel Keyekeh, played a leading role in helping Samartex become the league’s latest champions.
Granted, not all, if any, among the latest batch of leavers would have that sort of success. But it is the feeling that Kotoko, with only a bit more patience, could have extracted more from these players — such as exciting attacker Oppong and promising full-back Nicholas Osei Bonsu, for whom the loudest ohs and ahs were reserved by stunned fans online — which grates on those who’d want to see the club make good returns on its investment.
For an institution that struggles to generate enough funds to merely sustain itself, the turnover rate at Kotoko is ridiculously high; certainly, an outfit so cash-strapped cannot afford to be this wasteful.
The excuse this time (as always) may be that it clears the slate considerably for the head coach, Dr. Prosper Narteh Ogum, to rebuild, but if anyone should leave so Kotoko finds their way again, it is probably Ogum himself — especially after his unforced, post-season mea culpa.
Don’t hold your breath, though; with him doubling as a member of an Interim Management Committee (IMC) that has only one other member on the ground (and even he is a traditional chief with little football knowledge), Ogum is going nowhere anytime soon.
Barring any unforeseeable occurrence, he’ll have another chance at success next season — but there would be no such shot at redemption, at least not in Kotoko colours, for the players he has now flushed out of the club.
Organisers of the Ghana Football Awards have announced the full nominees for the 2024 edition of the award scheme.
The award ceremony will be held for the sixth time since its inception.
Mohammed Kudus, Osman Bukari, Abdul Fatawu Issahaku and Inaki Williams headline the 2024 edition of the Ghana Football Awards which is set to be staged at the Dome of the Accra International Conference Centre on Saturday, June 29.
The event which will be live on Joy Prime TV will see the quartet battle for the prestigious Footballer of the Year Award which is the flagship category of the awards scheme.
The four players made the final shortlist of the category after deliberations over a long list.
While the Football of the Year is the icing on the cake, other exciting categories include the Home-based Footballer of the Year which honours Ghanaians and foreigners who play in the domestic league.
The unveiling of the nominees took place at Big Leagues Sports & Lounge, Osu, on Wednesday, June 12.
Here are the full nominees for this year’s awards:
