Asante Kotoko coach Prosper Narteh Ogum admits the club had an unpleasant 2023-2024 season after they ended the campaign trophyless.
Kotoko struggled throughout the season, enduring a streak of seven matches without a win at one point. They ultimately finished in 6th place, accumulating 49 points with a record of 14 wins, 12 defeats, and seven draws.
Reflecting on their performance, Coach Ogum expressed his disappointment over the team’s inability to secure victories, particularly in their home matches.
“It was an unpleasant season. What we wanted to achieve, we couldn’t in terms of performance on the pitch. I think we fell below expectations,” Ogum stated on the club’s channel.
He pointed out that the outcome of several matches was a key reason for their failure to clinch the league title.
“Especially some of the games we lost and drew at home. Typically, Asante Kotoko shouldn’t have lost or drawn. If you look at these games, they are the ones that prevented us from winning the trophy,” he explained.
Ogum also highlighted the impact of their home game results on the fans’ morale.
“The joy of the fans is at Baba Yara because when you win, the fans become excited, and because we couldn’t win, it made everything unpleasant,” he added.
In response to the disappointing season, the club has taken drastic action by parting ways with 18 players, including goalkeeper Ibrahim Danlad.
These changes reflect a significant overhaul as Kotoko aim to improve their performance in the upcoming season.
Ghana youth international Mathew Anim Cudjoe has left Scottish side, Dundee United, after both parties failed to reach an agreement over a renewal.
The attacking midfielder’s contract with the club expired at the end of the season and there were ongoing talks over a possible renewal.
However, after extended negotiations between the player’s entourage and the club, Dundee United have agreed to part ways with the exciting winger.
The Tangerines confirmed the departure of Anim Cudjoe on the club’s website on Tuesday, June 18.
“We can confirm Mathew Cudjoe has decided to call time on his Tannadice career. The club made an offer which reflected our vision for Mathew in both financial and footballing terms however the Ghanaian has decided to pursue his career elsewhere,” the statement read.
During his time at the club, the Ghanaian scored five goals in 46 games for the club featuring in the Premiership and the Championship.
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.
Favour Ofili is Nigeria’s new 100m champion and automatic qualifier for the Paris Games after winning the Olympic trials in Benin to become the fastest woman in the country.
Delayed but not denied, Favour Ofili made a triumphant return on home soil by winning the women’s 100m national title at the Nigeria Olympic trials as her time also surpassed the Paris Olympics qualifying standard.
Ofili, who last raced in Nigeria in 2021, continued with her brilliant 2024 season at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin. She came to the trials not just as the favourite to win, but most importantly, with another chance of hitting the Paris Olympic qualifying 100m standard.
The talented speedster began her chase with a statement victory and Season’s Best (SB) of 11.17s in the semifinals – the fastest overall time.
Less than two hours later and in the absence of her fierce rival Rosemary Chukwuma in the final, Ofili had just one goal in mind – secure her Olympic ticket and win her first national senior title.
She did both astonishingly by blazing to an impressive new SB of 11.06s, a time good enough to automatically surpass the Olympic qualifying standard of 11.10s.
African Games revelation Olayinka Olajide was second in 11.37s, while Justina Eyakpobeyan secured the last podium placement in 11.47s.With Ofili’s victory and ticket to Paris, this means she has now qualified for the Olympic Games in the 100m and 200m events, and earned the bragging rights of being called Nigeria’s fastest woman for the next year.
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:
Veteran coach and current Heart of Lions manager, Bashir Hayford, has advised Asante Kotoko and Hearts of Oak to build their own stadiums or risk facing difficulties in winning the Ghana Premier League.
The country’s two most prominent clubs have historically used government-owned infrastructure — Accra Sports Stadium and Baba Yara Stadium — as their home venues.
Both clubs have secured just one Premier League title each since 2014.
“As Ghanaians, we must learn to tell the truth, it will be very difficult for teams who do not have their own stadium facility to win the league,” he said in an interview with Akoma FM.
“Kotoko and Hearts of Oak don’t play at their own venues, but the likes of Samatex, Nsoatreman and Bechem all play at their own stadium facility. When you travel to these privately owned facilities, you really go through a lot of intimidation and the referees can’t be independent.
“Your chances of winning at such private venues are very slim, unlike the state-owned venues like Accra and Kumasi where security is assured and level playing grounds exist for all competing teams. Hearts and Kotoko must get their own stadium, otherwise winning the league will become difficult.”
With six games to, Samartex are seven points clear on top of the Ghana Premier League table with 52 points.
Ghana international Mohammed Kudus registered his fifth Premier League assist of the season in West Ham United’s game against Liverpool on Saturday.
The midfielder teed up Jarrod Bowen for his 20th goal of the season as the Hammers and the Reds played out a 2-2 draw at the London Stadium.
West Ham grabbed the lead in the 43rd minute when the Englishman headed into the net a cross from Kudus to open the scoring.
ut the visitors were much improved in the second half and Andy Robertson equalised when he scored from Luis Diaz’s low pass into the penalty area.
They were then rewarded for their pressure when Cody Gakpo’s effort from a corner ricocheted off Angelo Ogbonna, Tomas Soucek and Alphonse Areola before finding the back of the net.
It looked like they were on their way to bouncing back from back-to-back defeats in the league until Antonio’s thumping header put the Hammers back on level terms.
Liverpool sit third in the table with three games remaining, two points behind leaders Arsenal, who face Tottenham on Sunday, while Manchester City are second but have two games in hand.
With his contribution against Jurgen Klopp’s side, Kudus has now been directly involved in 12 league goals, scoring seven and setting up five.
A former Black Stars captain, Asamoah had indicated that he would deploy his resources and influence to help Ghana nurture talents in all sporting disciplines.
This he said stems from his vision of ensuring Ghana is well-represented in all sporting disciplines during the Olympics and other world sporting events, hence birthing the All Regional Games.
Mr Gyan was speaking at a media engagement in Ho during the regional torch relay of the All-Regional Games.
The All Regional Games is a multi-sports competition formulated to help unearth raw talents in nine sporting disciplines.
Teams would be constituted of athletes between the ages of 18-23 who would represent the 16 regions at the main event scheduled in November 2024.
The teams would compete in Football, Athletics, Volleyball, Basketball, Tennis, Table Tennis, Boxing, E-sports, and Arm-wrestling.
Former Black Stars Captain, Asamoah Gyan who is spearheading the organizing of the Games said it was his long-term dream to help produce talents in all sporting disciplines to represent Ghana.
“Thinking through, I just decided to do something beyond football to help the next generation to also benefit.
“So that some years to come we won’t see just a Ghanaian athlete participating in Olympic games or two. I just wanted Ghana to dominate all the sporting disciplines”, he said.
He said the Games would be held annually to help empower the younger generation, who have natural talents in sports, guide and help them develop it into a gainful venture to support their livelihoods.
The Dean of Municipal and District Chief Executive in the Volta Region, James Etornam Flolu entreated stakeholders in the sports fraternity to ensure the success of the All Regional Games.
Asamoah Gyan led his team on a float in the streets of Ho to create awareness of the All Regional Games.
The All Regional Games (ARG) team visited the Oti Region on Tuesday, April 23, 2024, sparking a wave of excitement and anticipation as they kicked off the Torch Relay, marking the beginning of festivities leading up to the highly anticipated ARG kickoff.
The Torch Relay, which is a symbolic gesture of unity and sportsmanship made its way through the vibrant streets of the Oti Region amidst jubilation from residents.
From Oti Radio to GBC Radio, and the Regional Coordinating Council, the ARG team engaged with the community stakeholders to brief them about their vision.
The Regional Minister for the Oti Region, Daniel Machator, welcomed the ARG delegation with open arms, embracing the many opportunities the All Regional Games presents to the region.
The ARG team also extended their gratitude to the Regional Police Command for their assured assistance and commitment to ensuring the safety and success of the games.
The Torch Relay earned overwhelming support from the residents of the Oti Region, who poured out in numbers to join the legendary Asamoah Gyan and pledge their backing for the upcoming All Regional Games.
For more information and updates on the All Regional Games, please visit www.allregionalgames.co
