From Adamu to Grant, the biggest stories of the past week

Ghana Football is never bereft of fun filled stories and controversies and this week was no exception.

In a week where stories about Ghana’s young actor Abraham Atta trended from Monday to Saturday football news still managed to make inroads.

Monday
Football fans were greeted with news about the resignation of the Aduana Stars’ coach Nurudeen Adams. Just 2 weeks into the league we’ve seen the first casualty. Aduana stars maintained all their top players from last season from goalkeeper Stephen Adams, Enterprising wingback Godfred Saka, Seth Opare and Striker Richard Arhin. They did beefed up the squad with mouth watering signings in Zakaria Mumuni, much travelled Yahaya Mohammed, free-scoring midfielder Noah Martey amongst others.

They were tipped to challenge for the title but after two games they are yet to pick a single point. To make it worse all the talks of the new attacking Aduana has so far proved nonsense with the club failing to register a goal in the league. With all these the resignation of the Nurudeen Ali comes as no surprise.

There was also news about his spat with dethroned captain Godfred Saka who was said to have questioned the coach’s decision to select new signing Joseph Addo ahead of club legend Stephen Adams to keep post against Inter Allies. This led to Saka being stripped of his captaincy.

There was no way he was going to win a war against club legends and fan favourites. Yahaya Mohammed has thrown more light into happenings at in the camp of the 2009/10 champions attributing the coach’s resignation to disunity at the club.

Normally losing a coach early season is viewed as bad as the new coach will have little time to impact into the players his own ideas and brand of football but I see this one as a welcoming one. The damage the rift between the head coach and the club’s cult heroes would’ve caused would’ve been more damming than the struggles they have to go through adapting to the style of a new tactician.

Tuesday
Tuesday was an eventful day in Ghana football. One of the news that dominated airwaves was the unfortunate demise of Francis Bruce Thompson who died on the way to the Police Hospital after complaining of heart pains. He was the former Team Manager of Hearts Of Oaks, Liberty Professionals and Bechem United. May his gentle soul rest in peace.

Avram Grant’s continuous absence in Ghana has prompted the Ghana Football Association to summon him here. The media has been giving the GFA sticks for months but they looked unperturbed trying hard every time to come to the defence of their employee who takes $50k a month. Since the dawn of 2016 the former Chelsea coach is yet to step foot in Ghana but he is always on UK TV as a football pundit. We woke up on Tuesday to news that the FA has written a letter to him demanding his return to post.

Ibrahim Saanie Daara speaking on joy FM said "Let me state as a matter of fact that the Ghana FA has asked him to come down because the league is underway,”

"We are also getting close to our match against Mozambique and therefore, we need him here and in a very due course, he will be here.
"We are very much in touch with him, we control what he does and we would want to state that if he does anything that is untoward we will call him to book."

The coach
will surely return but whether he will remain here after the national team assignment or run back to UK we live to see.

Finally, on Tuesday, the Great Britain High Commissioner to Ghana paid a courtesy call on the GFA. He held a closed-door meeting with the FA capo Kwesi Nyantakyi. Also, there was his vice, George Afriyie. The two parties, that is the British High Commission and the Ghana Football Association announced a strategic partnership using football as a medium to propagate peace during the November polls.

The GFA president used the opportunity to put to bed rumours of any bad blood between the Honourable High Commissioner and the GFA amid the former’s criticism of the FA, alleging that they use money from FIFA to acquire luxurious cars instead of using it to develop pitches attracting a harsh worded response from the former. These are the words of Nyantakyi.
"We discussed issues of mutual interest to Ghana football and the UK and also about using football as an instrument to promote peace during the elections.”

"I can confirm to you that we are not enemies of the High Commissioner; we are very good friends and we respect his views and hope to build on this relationship to improve football in the country,"

Kwadwo Asamoah returned from injury lay off and featured for Juventus in against Inter Milan at San Siro. It was the 2nd leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final tie. They lost 3-0 but eliminated Inter when the tie was settled on shot outs.

Wednesday
The Vice President of the GFA revealed the allowance bagged by the GFA President. As per the new reforms by world’s football governing body FIFA football officials will have their salaries declared to help bring a level of transparency in the sport. Answering questions on Starr FMs Sports Extra the Vice President of the FA said Mr Nyantakyi the GFA President do not take salaries but a monthly allowance which is less than GHC2,000.

’if I have his permission, I would have given you the actual amount but what in know is that Mr. Nyantakyi does not receive salary but rather he receives a monthly allowance less than two thousand Ghana Cedis “ The words of George Akwesi Afriyie.

Thursday
It was announced on Thursday morning that Blackstars midfielder Mubarak Wakaso will miss this month's AFCON qualifiers after being ruled out for 2 months. The former Ashanti Gold player was in action in a Spanish La Liga game for his club UD Las Palmas against Getafe. He only lasted for 15 minutes picking up a thigh injury.

Two Ghanaian tacticians celebrated their birthday on Thursday. Hasaacas coach Yusif Basigi and former Asante Kotoko gaffer Mas-ud Didi Dramani.

Friday
2009/10 League Champions Aduana Stars have re-hired Ciaoba Aristica to take over from Nurudeen Adams who resigned on Monday from the Dormaa giant. The Romanian tactician will be at Dormaa on Monday and follow the club to Techiman for the Brong Ahafo derby involving Techiman City and Aduana Stars.
The official Facebook announced that Accra Hearts Of Oaks have agreed a one-year deal Abova Water to be the official water providers for the 2000 African Champions.

Saturday
Forgotten Ex Blackstars captain name resurfaced in the media. In a surprise but a welcoming news John Mensah it was announced byghanasoccernet.com that John Mensah has signed for Athletic FC, a Swedish 2nd tier side. The 33 years defender has been without a club for 2years now. Good luck to the Rock Of Gibraltar
Week 3 of the 2015/16 Ghana Premier League kicked off at the Obuasi Len Clay Stadium with defending Champions Ashanti Gold welcoming Berekum Chelsea. The home side dominated play but their attack lacked potency and couldn’t threaten Ahmed Tijani in post for the Berekum Blues as the game ended in a goalless draw. It was the 1st draw game in this season’s league and doubles as the 1st barren game of the season.

Sunday
The league continuous in other 7 centres. Cape Coast Mysterious Abusua Dwarfs welcomes Hearts Oaf Oaks to the Robert Mensah Stadium in what promises to be an action-packed game. Inter Allies will host Dreams FC at Tema.

Techiman will witness a Brong Ahafo regional derby between Techiman City and Aduana Stars. New Edubiase will be the guest of Bechem United this afternoon at Bechem. WAFA will negotiate things with Hasaacas at the Sogafope Red Bull Arena.

League Leaders Wa Allstars will look to maintain their 100% record when they play Liberty Professionals this Afternoon at the Wa Park. The last duel of the day will be between record league winners Asante Kotoko and FA Cup champions Medeama SC at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium.
Happy Independence Day To All Ghanaians.