Ebusua Dwarfs FC will play its upcoming Ghana Premier League and MTN FA Cup home matches at the Nduom Sports Complex in Elmina.
This is due to works on improving the pitch and other facilities at the Cape Coast Stadium to meet the required FIFA/CAF standards ahead of Ghana’s 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Ethiopia.
Dwarfs will however return to the Cape Coast Stadium after the Black Stars match for the remaining league and MTN FA Cup matches.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports, National Sports Authority and the Ghana Football Association are working feverishly to ensure that the Cape Coast Stadium is in the best of shape in line with FIFA standards to host all three World Cup qualifying matches of the Black Stars.
The Association will continue to engage all stakeholders to ensure that Ghana hosts the upcoming qualifying match against Ethiopia next month and subsequent ones successfully at the Cape Coast Stadium.
Okyeman Planner will light up the opening week of the re-branded MTN FA Cup in a massive game in a battle of Akyem.
The Preliminary Draw has paired interesting clubs majority of them being local derbies, with mouth watering fixtures
In Group A, Techiman City will come up against fellow division one side Unity FC, while Achiken FC will come face to face with fellow division one side Bekwai Youth FC.
in Group F, Skyy FC will host Nzema Kotoko, also an all division one clash, Group G will have familiar faces in Swedru All Black facing Venomous Vipers, with New Edubiase playing host to Unistar Academy.
Below is the Full fixtures for the preliminary round of the MTN FA Cup
Black Stars forward Emmanuel Gyasi is aiming to help Ghana end the 40-year Africa Cup of Nations trophy drought.
Gyasi, made his debut for the Black Stars in March in Afcon qualifiers against South Africa. He played a role as Ghana sealed qualification with a game to spare.
According to him he never spoke to anybody from the Ghana Football Association before his maiden call-up as reported in the local media.
“There had been some speculations about me, but I had never spoken to anyone from the Ghana Football Association (GFA) before (the call-up).” he told BBC Sports.
“Then I was finally called up! Ghana is an important football country in Africa, with thousands of good players. I am very proud of myself.”
Despite being proud of wearing the Black Stars jersey, that is not enough for the Italian-born forward, who wants to win a trophy for the country.
“Ghana are a strong National team, a good mix of interesting young prospects and more experienced players. The manager and his staff are very prepared too,” he said.
“Ghana have played several World Cups and Africa Cups of Nations: our dream and that of our fans is to win the trophy.
“We know it won’t be easy and we will have to think game by game, but we’ll go there to make our dreams come true. We have to believe in ourselves.”
The former Porcupine Warriors striker is brimming with confidence as he prepares to make his bow in the Algerian league on Tuesday night
Former Asante Kotoko striker Kwame Opoku says he is excited to have made USM Alger matchday squad as they face E.S Setif in Algerian League on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old joined the North African side in March after sealing a four-and-a-half year contract but has only featured in training matches.
Setif, who also have former WAFA midfielder Richmond Lamptey, are top of the log with 41 points while Alger sit seventh with 31 points. A win is imminent for Opoku’s side in their bid to make it into the Top Four and qualify to participate in Caf inter-club competitions.
“I’m happy today. It is every player’s dream to be part of his club’s matchday squad so I was excited when named in the squad to face E.S Setif,” Opoku told Angel FM, Kumasi.
“We arrived in Setif on Monday and have even finished our morning training ahead of the game. When I arrived in Algeria, there were issues with my documents that is why my debut delayed.
“Currently, the Algerian FA are only waiting for one proof from Ghana FA which confirms that I’m a national team player and has played for Black Stars before. If I wasn’t a national team player, it wouldn’t have been a problem,” he added.
Opoku, who made his Black Stars debut against South Africa in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, scored seven goals for Kotoko before he left the shores of the country for greener pastures.
The Ghana Football Association (GFA), on Monday, confirmed that the Confederation of African Football (Caf) has granted conditional approval for the Black Stars to host their 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifying home matches at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium.
This follows the submission of the Stadium Report and further justification on video conferencing for the Cape Coast edifice in line with the Caf Circular dated April 1, 2021 concerning the homologation requirements and supervision of Caf stadiums for the Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 – African qualifiers.
In a response, Caf pointed out some minor works needed to be undertaken before Ghana hosts its first qualifying game at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium on June 4.
“We would like to draw your attention to some of the comments and remarks in Annex A to be addressed in the coming period by your federation, in order to guarantee that the stadium is maintained in the list of Caf approved stadiums for Men’s Senior competitions.
“In case organizational and stadium technical infractions are verified during your upcoming international home matches, financial sanctions may incur on your federation as per the established Caf grid for lack of technical facilities in the stadium,” the African football governing body warned.
Caf added: “We appreciate your contribution in helping us raise the level of African football with improved facilities as we continue to gain exposure to a global audience.”
Housed in Group G of the African qualifiers, the Black Stars will host Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and South Africa on June 4, September 4 and October 12 respectively at Cape Coast.
There was a feeling, at the beginning of this season, that Asante Kotoko would be quite a force to reckon with if they landed their top three transfer targets.
Two of those, Justice Blay and Mathew Anim Cudjoe, featured for the Porcupine Warriors last term, proving impactful on the pitch and popular with the fans.
And they stood out for special acclaim in the biggest game of that abruptly terminated 2019/20 Ghana Premier League season, when Kotoko visited archrivals Accra Hearts of Oak.
Blay soared to score the opener, with 16-year-old Cudjoe coming on toward the end to create the circumstances from which a last-gasp winner was snatched.
The prospect of having the pair — one of the best midfielders in the league and the newest kid on the block — throughout the course of a full season seemed appetizing enough, but Kotoko needed to pull out all the stops to make it happen.
Both were only in Kumasi on loan, and the fees being demanded to make the deals permanent were deemed exorbitant, even for a club with deep [but hole-ridden] pockets.
Kotoko’s new leadership just wasn’t in any position to make such significant outlays at the start of its tenure, so Blay returned to his parent club, Medeama, while Cudjoe’s handlers whisked him off into the arms of a suitor willing to pay.
That suitor, nouveau-riche Legon Cities, is a ‘new’ club that morphed from 2015/16 champion Wa All Stars, and they certainly haven’t been shy about flaunting their status as the biggest spenders in town these days.
Kotoko have felt the heaviest impact of Cities’ purchasing power, and although the Cudjoe bit stung, the more audacious display of opulence characterised the window’s grandest transfer coup.
Asamoah Gyan — Cudjoe’s mentor — was the third of the three Kotoko targets mentioned at the outset, but Cities went ahead to snap him up as their own marquee signing.
To be fair, Kotoko had ‘first refusal’ on Gyan, unarguably Ghana’s biggest star of the last decade and one of the finest African strikers in that period. He is, as you are probably already aware, a lifelong Kotoko fan whose desire to represent the two-time African champions someday was (is?) no secret.
But, of course, Gyan’s desire and Kotoko’s appetite needed to be crystallised by something more solid – something like, er, money — and the club’s pursuit ultimately crashed into the same barrier that saw them fail to retain the services of Blay and Cudjoe.
The club’s pride was punctured, obviously, but Kotoko have ploughed on with the materials at their disposal, regardless, overcoming a difficult start to the 2020/21 league campaign to secure a foothold in the league table’s top quarter.
Currently in second place, only a point behind leaders Medeama, few at Kotoko would be beating themselves up now over those transfer misses.
And that’s especially so because Cudjoe and Gyan have only had, between them, a total of 13 appearances this season; together, they’ve played just about a half’s duration of football in two games — both lost — against Kotoko.
Gyan has struggled to get his body and form in sync with his razor-sharp mentality (and razor-sharp tongue), while Cudjoe’s hot streak has startlingly cooled, with Cities flirting with the possibility of going down — glam and all.
Blay has had a better run, but even he had to come through a tough period at the start of the term that seemed a consequence of his struggle to shrug off the failed move to Kotoko.
He hasn’t lined up for either of Medeama’s meetings with Kotoko, the more recent absence explained by a potentially season-ending leg break suffered against Cities on the preceding matchday.
Medeama prevailed in that Gameweek 21 away fixture in Obuasi, anyway, overcoming and overtaking Kotoko to rise to the top of the table, but the losers would squeeze some solace from the fact that Blay had no hand in inflicting the defeat.
And they’d be even more comforted by the knowledge that the influential 29-year-old, should the title chase narrow into a straight fight between them and the Mauve & Yellow, won’t have a say in swinging things Medeama’s way.
Oh, Gyan? And Cudjoe?
Well, Kotoko’s narrow victory over Cities on Saturday pushed their side right back into the relegation zone, and it doesn’t look like either player has the ability right now to halt that decline.
They are, like Blay (tragically, in his case), of no relevance to Kotoko — neither in the present nor in the foreseeable future — or to their own teams, for that matter.
Hearts of Oak coach, Samuel Boadu says his side’s defeat against Dreams is down to the numerical advantage for his opponents after Nuru Sulley’s red card.
The Phobians were held by their hosts to a goalless stalemate in the first half and after the break but Sulley got sent off in the 53rd minute.
The resulting chance handed Dreams the lead and they held on till additional time to notch their second of the afternoon.
Samuel Boadu, in his post-match interview, allayed the cause of the defeat to his men lacking in numbers.
“Well, it’s unfortunate. We were playing well till we had the red card to Sulley and that gave them the advantage.
“It’s usually difficult to match a quick opponent when you are a man down. Everything changed – our transition and our attack too.
“We have got to get over this and look ahead in our next games.”
Hearts have now lost twice in their last four games, winning one and drawing the other match. It’s now six losses for the Phobians this season.
Up next for the Ghanaian giants is a home fixture against relegation-threatened King Faisal.
German-born of Ghanaian descent Jan Gyamerah has disclosed that he decided to play for the senior national team of Ghana since the Black Stars exploits at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
The 25-year-old, who has played for the German youth national teams, says since watching his father’s country reach the last eight of the global tournament, sparked the burning desire to wear the shirts of the Ghana national team.
The Hamburg SV star was born in Germany but his roots are in Ghana as his father comes from the African country.
Gyamerah has already played for the Germany team in the U17, U18 and U19 junior national team – but he would like to play for his home country in the senior national team.
“After the 2010 World Cup at the latest, it was a dream of mine that is still alive,” said Gyamerah.
“Back then I also got a few insights into the team through videos of friends and saw that there seems to be a completely different mentality there. I would be tempted to experience something like that live.
“So far there has been no exchange with the association but I know that much that I would be happy about it.”
Gyamerah’s latest expression of his desire to switch nationality is a big welcome for Ghana who are struggling to find comptent replacement or options for Harrison Afful who has bossed the position for the past decade.
The right-back has made 22 appearances for Hamburg this season showing that he is a first team player with the possiblity of injecting some quality into the Black Stars squad.
He must first apply for FIFA to secure his nationality switch before he can be allowed to play for Ghana as he has already played for the youth national team of Germany.
Ghana’s right-back position is currently owned by Andy Yiadom of Reading but persistent injuries have prevented him from playing several matches this season.
ACCRA Hearts Of Oak suffered a 2-0 defeat on the road in the hands of Dreams FC at the Dawu Park on Sunday in their matchday 22 of the 2020/21 Ghana Premier League.
![MTN FA Cup: Bofoakwa Tano draw Barcelona, Okyeman Planners, Kotoku Royals in battle of Akyem [ Check Full draw]](https://footy.ghpush.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MTN-FA-cup-Draw-780x470.jpeg-768x463.jpg "MTN FA Cup: Bofoakwa Tano draw Barcelona, Okyeman Planners, Kotoku Royals in battle of Akyem [ Check Full draw]")
