FootyDream

Asante Kotoko captain, Felix Annan says he feels honoured to be a member of the “greatest football club in Ghana”.

The Porcupine Warriors mark their 85th birthday anniversary today as they hope to rediscover their glory days on the continent.

New Chief Executive Officer, Nana Yaw Amponsah has pledged to work hard to endure the Ghanaian giants find solutions to their challenges to take back their great heritage as the greatest club in Africa.

Kotoko has 23 Ghana Premier League titles and 2 Africa Champions League titles, having reached finals on several occasions, and a lot of trophies in the local scene.

They were named Africa Club of the Century by International Federation of Football History and Statistics(IFFHS).

Felix Annan, who is excited to be part of the ‘amazing’ clubs hopes the 85th-anniversary celebration brings great success and joy to the club.

He tweeted: “HappyBirthday To Us The Greatest Club In Ghana! Honoured To Be Part Of This Great, Passionate, Love And Amazing Club! May This Day Bring More Success And Joy To Us.”

Techiman City president Charles Kwadwo Ntim popularly known as “Micky Charles” has withdrawn its injunction application against the Ghana Football Association (GFA) over congress, Happy Sports can confirm.

Techiman City had resorted to the law courts to force the GFA to suspend congress after its decision not to accept a proposal to amend several portions of the GFA Statutes.

According to Techiman City, the GFA has violated large parts of its statutes in calling for the Congress and have asked the court to force the GFA’s Executive Council to enforce its laws.

Micky Charles had gone to seek an injunction from the Accra High Court on the upcoming GFA Congress set for Tuesday 1 September.

Bailiffs were sent to the GFA on Friday morning to serve the General Secretary with the court injunction but officials of the FA were not available to receive them.

Happy Sports has gathered that Lawyer Kwabena Boye Adjekumhene from the Akufo-Addo & Prempeh Co law firm, who represented Micky Charles at the E.K Mensah court on Monday has withdrawn the case.

Micky Charles has been fined GHC 500 by the court for time wasting.

Congress is expected to go on as planned on Tuesday at the Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence, Prampram.

Credit:Happyghana

In football, there have been many big clubs in Ghana. But one of the biggest clubs in the country is Asante Kotoko. The Porcupines has produced some of the big footballers and also had a great and remarkable history.

The club has been one of the oldest clubs in the Ghanaian game as they celebrate their 50th Birthday today. As the clubs have produced some of the legendary players like Baba Yara, Wilberforce Mfum, Ibrahim Sunday, Osei Kofi, Robert Mensah, Stephen Oduro etc.

The club has been the winner of big trophies of football like champions league. So here are 10 facts you won’t know about Asante Kotoko Sporting Club.

1. The foundation of the club was laid by 13 young Ashanti men led by Mr Kwasi Kumah who was ably supported by Lawrence Yaw Asamoah who was his good friend in 1924.

2. The club started as Kumasi Rainbow then to Ashanti United Football Club in 1926. In 1931, the name changed to Kumasi Titanics and in 1934, they adopted the name, Mighty Atoms and finally, in 1935, Mr J.S.K. Frimpong, who was a teacher proposed the name Asante Kotoko ‘Football’ Club with permission from the then Asantehene, Nana Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II because of the name ‘Kotoko,’ meaning “Porcupine” which is the symbol of the Ashanti Kingdom.

3. Nana Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II, became the first-ever patron of the club in 1935 after it has been formally founded.

4. The colours of Asante Kotoko depict the colours on both the national flag (ethnic flag) and national emblem of Ashanti with the colours of red, yellow and green used on the Asante Kotoko first (home) kit shirts and shorts while the colours white and red are used on the second alternative kit shirts and shorts; and in 2011, Asante Kotoko re-introduced third alternative kit of black, yellow and green colours worn in the late 1980s.

5. Asante Kotoko’s emblem symbolizes the national emblem of the Kingdom of Ashanti (Kingdom of Asante) and Ashanti with the colours black, green and yellow enclosing the colours on the national flag and ethnic flag of the Kingdom of Asante and Asante Kotoko’s emblem [also represents the national emblem of the Ashanti people and the Ashanti nation (who are more like the Catalan people and Catalonia); the Asante Kotoko emblem features a remarkably threatening-looking hedgehog and the motto “Ashanti Twi: Kum apem a, apem beba”, which means “Kill a thousand, and a thousand more will come”.

6. Asante Kotoko won its maiden Ghana premier league trophy in 1959 after Hearts of Oak had won it the previous year when the national football league was introduced in 1958 and has gone on to win it 24 times, better than any other club in Ghana and is the first club to win the FA Cup title in 1958 after beating Hearts of Oak 4-2 in the final.

7. Asante Kotoko were the second Ghanaian club to participate in the African Cup of Champions Clubs, now Champions League in 1966 and reached the quarter-final after Real Republicans in 1965 and the first Ghanaian club to reach the final of the competition in 1967 and lost the title to TP Englebert, now TP Mazembe without losing a single game until the final game.

8. In 1970, Asante Kotoko became the first Ghanaian club to win a continental trophy during the 6th edition of the CAF champions league, then African Cup of Champions Clubs after beating TP Englebert 1-2 in Kinshasa. Abukari Gariba and Malik Jabir scored the goals for Kotoko. And won their second during the 19th edition in 1983 after beating Al Ahly 1-0 courtesy Opoku Nti’s 22nd-minute strike before Hearts of Oak did it 2000.

9. Asante Kotoko were the first to represent Ghana in the African Cup Winners Cup in 1976.

10. Domestic records by Asante Kotoko;

Ghana Super Cup record winners (3)

SWAG Cup record winners (12)

Top 4 record winners (2)

Annual Republic Day Cup record winners (3)

11. Asante Kotoko became the first and the only Ghanaian club to produce African Footballer award winners in 1971 (Ibrahim Sunday) after captaining Kotoko in the final to win its first African Cup of Champions Clubs, now Champions League trophy and Abdul Karim Razak in 1978 after helping Ghana win the Cup of Nations that year.

12. Osei Kofi was the substantive captain of Asante Kotoko during the 1970 African Cup of Champions Clubs competition but got injured during the semi-final game against Ismaily and was replaced by Ibrahim Sunday who was then the vice-captain. Papa Arko is the second and the last captain to win the trophy in 1983.

13. In 1951, Asante Kotoko became the first Ghanaian club to play in football boots after it was bought by then patron, Mr Degraft Dickson from Britain. The first Asante Kotoko player to wear football boot was James Adjei during a training tour with the Black Stars in Britain in 1951.

14. Hearts of Oak emulated and, prior to a friendly game against Asante Kotoko in 1954, the Phobians followed suit and also wore football boots. However, Kotoko took a three-goal lead in that game, because the Hearts of Oak players felt uncomfortable playing in boots for the very first time. In the second half, the Phobians took off their football boots and played with their barefoot. The scoreline remained the same, 3-0.

15. Asante Kotoko, aside being the first Ghanaian club to wear football boots, were also the first club to undertake a training tour abroad in 1969, The reason why the Porcupines missed the opportunity of playing against Pele’s Santos in Accra. When the Brazilian club arrived in Ghana around the same period, Kotoko were in Great Britain playing against a Stoke City that contained the likes of legendary goalkeeper Gordon Banks and other English superstars.

16. Asante Kotoko mauled Brazilian club Flamengo 4-0 in Kumasi after drawing goalless with Real Republicans in Accra. Osei Kofi scored all the four goals for Kotoko in 1968.

17. Asante Kotoko’s heaviest win in CAF Champions League game was 7-0 which came in 2013 at the Baba Yara Stadium against EquatoriaGuinean side Sony Ela Nguema.

18. B.K Edusei was the first chairman of Asante Kotoko to lift the Champions League trophy in 1970, then African Cup of Champions Clubs before Yaw Bawuah won it in 1983.

19.  On January 19, 1963, Asante Kotoko became the first Ghanaian club to appoint a foreign coach and first club to employ a full-time coach in the shape of József Ember who had been sacked as Black Stars coach with a two-year contract and won the 1963/64 league title without losing a match in the first round (W16 D1 L0).

20. Asante Kotoko is the eight club with the most appearances in the CAF Champions League final (1967, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1982, 1983, 1993) and won it twice (1970, 1983).

21. On February 1, 2010, Asante Kotoko were crowned Africa’s club of the century by the International Football Federation of History and Statistics (IFFHS) in London, Fulham.

22. Mathew Anim Cudjoe is the youngest ever player to play for Asante Kotoko, age 16.

So, that’s how Asante Kotoko is known as the best Football team in Ghana. If you know any more facts about 

Source: Myfaubulousonline

Saturday, August 29, 2020, saw a tall list of awards a host of deserving media personalities at the  9th edition of the Foklex Media Awards staged at the National Theatre in Accra, Ghana

David Ofori Osafo of Piece FM affectionately called Bongo Defaraa was adjudged the best commentator in the Greater Accra Region.

Richmond Opoku Afriyie ‘Pkay’ also won the Radio Personality of the year in the Ashanti Region.

Below is the full list of winners at the 9th Foklex Media Awards.

Chief Executive Officer Nana Yaw Amponsah has pledged to transform the club both on and off the field as we celebrate our 85th anniversary today.

The newly appointed CEO says the Porcupines must build on the successes of the past that made us one of the greatest on the African continent.

In his birthday message to the club, Nana Yaw Amponsah says he ‘will work hard’ to get the Porcupines to compete at the highest level and make the club greater than it has ever been.

Below is the full statement.

Credit: Kotoko Express App

Ghanaian clubs will be smiling to the 26th Ordinary Congress of the Ghana FA following the arrival of 50% of the COVID-19 Relief Fund from FIFA.

Clubs, are therefore expected to be informed by the Ghana FA by Monday beclfore theybzoom to the 26th Ordinary Congress on Tuesday.

The first trench of the FIFA COVID-19 Relief Solidarity Fund of $500,000 which will benefit Premier league clubs, Division One League clubs and other stakeholders and another $500k for women football have all arrived.

This means, the GFA has received $1,000,000 and in the coming days will begin distributing it to clubs who have been hit hard by the coronavisrus pandemic.

Officials of the FA who confirmed the news to Ghanaweb say beneficiaries must note that rendering proper accounts for this $1m is a condition for FIFA releasing the remaining $500,000 in January 2021 to the GFA.

It would be recalled that the GFA and other Associations across the world have been engaging FIFA on Covid-19 Relief since the lockdown days in Ghana.

The GFA also had various Zoom meetings with beneficiaries to explain the process as well as the FIFA Regulation on this money, currently posted on the GFA website.

There is no doubt that this money has arrived at a good time and clubs will be smiling as they gather at Congress this Tuesday, September 1, 2020 to make decisions for the development of Ghana football.

The arrival of the money means that the GFA has meet all the requirements and application processes put in place by FIFA through the Regulations governing this Covid-19 Relief Fund.

Credit: Footballmadeinghana

Former Management Member of Asante Kotoko SC, Solomon Ofosu-ware, has called on the rank and file of the Club to protect the Board of Directors as well as the Chief Executive Officer from distractors.

According to Chairman Solo, Kotoko job comes with a lot of distractors whose main objective is to make you uncomfortable while discharging your duties.

And it will take only the supporters to prevent the Board of Directors and the Chief Executive Officer from going through such situation.

Speaking on Opemsuo 104.7 FM evening sports, Pramaso, the erstwhile Opoku Nti led Management team member said, “As a former Management Member and supporter, I know what can ensure the lasting success of the Board of Directors of our dear team regardless of the pessimists and the distractors. It is the Supporters.”

“Kotoko supporters should unite to shield the Board of Directors and the Chief Executive Officer for them to achieve something worthwhile for the Club. Without that, the usual inadmissible politics will jeopardize their work”.

He further revealed that supporters of the two-time Champions League winners should rise against those who have deliberately decided to cause confusion in the Board.
“Henceforth, Kotoko supporters must rise against people whose main occupation is to simply cause division within the Board. The malicious agenda and pull him down syndrome in the Club should not be tolerated again.”

Source: Opemsuo.com / Sasu Danquah.