Sports
BLACK STARS COACH DISMISSED
A television remark by Ghana's national chief coach team manager Fred Osam-Doudu, has cost him his job and created a crisis as the nation's football squad prepared for the defence of their African title in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.Mr Osam-Doudu was reported to have described newly appointed team manager, Kojo Nunoo as an "errand boy" in a television programme that looked at the preparation of the Black Stars, four-times champions of Africa. The next day, the coach was sent packing home from the Black Stars camp at Mendskrom at the outskirts of the nation's capital, Accra. The "go home" order was given by the Chairman of the Ghana Football Association Chairman, Mr L.T.K. Caesar who placed the squad's prepar- tion in the hands of Mr Emannuel Kwasi Afranie, the dismissed coach's immediate assistant.
Insurance for footballers
First and second division football clubs in Ghana have been ordered to have a group insurance policy to cover their players as from the country's 1984 football season in April..The Ghana Football Association which gave the order at a consultative meeting with the clubs, pledged to assist in the venture aimed at reducing the risk under which footballers in this West African country perform.
the Black Stars, financially from a welfare fund instituted by the GFA. As a first step, ex-international players would be given special passes to enable them to enter any stadia in the country free of charge.
On their part, some of the old stars who attended the meeting pledged to help train colt players for no fee.
Hector loses first fight in UK
Ghana's national bantamweight champion, Hector Clottey received the severest thrashing of his professional career when Britain's John Feeney took only six minutes to halt their 10-round international tourney in London.Clotley, who arrived in Britain hoping to boost his claim for a commonwealth title fight never found his rhythm in this one-sided match in London's Royal Albert Hall.
Green Eagles fail to qualify Nigeria were sent out of the Olympic Games soccer qualifying series last weekend when the Moroccan national team defeated the Green Eagles 4-3 in The match, which was the last hurdle between Nigeria and participation in the Olympic Games soccer competition in Los Angeles next July, had been widely expected to go Nigeria's way.
At the end of the full 90 minutes of play, there were no scores and the winner was decided by penalty kicks with Morocco emerging as the 4-3 winners.
The first round match, which was played in Lagos three weeks ago, ended in a goaless draw.
Eighteen referees Abidjan contest
Eighteen referees from countries that did not qualify for the 14th African holders. Cup of Nations tournament currently taking place in the Ivory Coast are handling the tournament scheduled for March 4th, and ends on March 18th. The meeting decided to assist former players of the nation's football team,They are Kokolo Jean-Louis (Congo), Gebreyesus Tesfaye, Diramba Jean-Fidele (Gabon), M.K. Njie Dodon (Gambia), Camara Karim (Guinea), G. Odengo Ngesa (Kenya), Adal Salem Mahmud (Libya), Traore Idrissa (Mali) and S. Picon-Ackong Edwin (Mauritius).
The rest are Larache M'hamed (Morocco), Sar Bakary (Senegal), Abdel Hafiz Hassan (Sudan), Benaceur Ali (Tunisia), Katumba Georges (Uganda), G. Mulenga Rezzlin (Zambia), Valdermarca France (Zimbabwe), Tahir Hafidh Ali (Tanzania) and Bahhou Mohammed (Morocco).
By tradition, African Cup matches are handled by referees from countries that are not in the final eight.
Law on transfer of players Transfer of registered players in Nigeria will cost 2,000 naira per player, the Nigeria Football Association announced after a meeting in Calabar. According to a NFA release, N1,000 will go to the club releasing the player, N500 to the state Football Association losing the player while the NFA gets N500.
The NFA said in taking the decision, it considered the following points: (a) players wanting to leave a club because they are under-utilised, (b) teams scouting for untapped talents from other teams, and (c) top clubs taking over players groomed by lesser clubs. Movement of players, said the NFA, is still restricted to the free period at the end of each season. The new law on transfer becomes operative next season.
Two new competitions in Nigeria
The Nigerian Football Association has introduced two new competitions in addition to the league and challenge cup competitions. They are the revival of the Manuwa/ Adebajo Cup, stopped since 1976, and Champion of Champions.The Manuwa/Adebajo Cup would for be competed for among secondary schools on state to state basis while the Champion of Champions is a straight fight between league and challenge cup
The Manuwa/Adebajo competition scheduled to start in August during the long vacation is strictly for students under 18 years old.
Amity called for
Mr Oyo Orok Oyo, Nigerian vice president of the African Football Association and member executive member of FIFA has advised the Nigerian Football Association to build a solid administration foundation and take decisions only on majority votes. Mr Oyo, who briefed the NFA on the state of African football, urged them to create something akin to a hot line with the state associations."If there was amity between the states FA, and the national secretariat, there would be no need for clubs affiliated to state FA's to go to court on certain issues," he told the NFA executive committee.
