Defiant Accra Hearts of Oak coach Kenichi Yatsuhashi is still certain that his side will triumph both in the League and the FA Cup.

The Phobians have struggled in most of their pre-season encounters but things appeared to have improved last Sunday when they played Inter-Allies in a friendly game at the Accra Sports Stadium.

Most Phobians have been skeptical about the prospects of the team in capturing the league let alone securing the double.

But the Japanese- born American insists he will bring the smiles back to the faces of the fans.

Aduana Stars number one goalie, Stephen Adams, says he is working very hard to make his way back into the senior national team.

He told the Graphic Sports in an interview that, “With my injury worries over and currently in fine form, I hope to use this football season to bounce back into the senior national team”.

Adams believes Aduana can repeat their 2009/10 season success story when they won the league for the first time.

New Premier League Board (PLB) chairman, Ashford Tettey-Oku, insists Capital Bank (formerly First Capital Plus Bank) remains title sponsors of the Premier League in spite of a unilateral suspension of the contract by the bank two months ago, casting doubts over whether the 2015/16 season will commence next month without sponsorship.

The PLB boss told the Graphic Sports yesterday that Capital Bank had a contractual agreement with the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and as far as he was aware the FA had not given any indication that the contract had been abrogated.

Reacting to concerns by Premier League clubs about the uncertainty over the league sponsorship, Mr Tettey-Oku said much as he identified with their apprehension, there was no cause for alarm.

Ghanaian premiership clubs will step-up their preparations for the upcoming season, which is expected to start on February 20, with a series of exciting matches this weekend.

As of the time of going to press yesterday, many clubs were still scrambling to book last-minute opponents after being hit by late withdrawals or postponements.

Dreams FC were one of such casualties with their Administrative Manager, Ameenu Shardow, confirming to the Graphic Sports that their intended opponents for an abortive high-profile friendly, Accra Hearts of Oak, had asked for a postponement in order to mark the 11th anniversary of winning the CAF Confederations Cup.

African football legend Camero-unian Roger Milla has heaped praise on the ongoing African Nations Championship, saying the standards and level of football had gone up since the last edition hosted by South Africa in 2014.

Speaking to Supersport.com at Huye in Butare the Legend spoke highly of the organisers describing Rwanda as having done an exemplary job to organise the tournament and praising the infrastructure as the group stages came to an end.

The Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Vincent Oppong Asamoah, has urged the two Ghanaian clubs participating in the CAF Champions League and Confederations Cup to make Ghana proud.

AshantiGold and Medeama will be Ghana’s representatives in the Champions League and Confederations Cup as winners of the First Capital Plus Premier League and MTN FA Cup respectively.

Ashgold begin their continental campaign next month when they host Algerian side MO Bejaia in the first round qualifier at the Len Clay Stadium at Obuasi, while Tarkwa-based Medeama, who drew a bye in the preliminary stage of the confederation cup, will face the winner of the match involving Al Ittihad of Libya and AS Sonidep of Niger in the 1/16th round clash.

Former Ghana Football Association (GFA) boss, Alhaji M.N.D. Jawula, will lead a team of members of the Club Licensing Board to undertake an inspection of home venues for

Premier League and Division One clubs this weekend ahead of the 2015/16 football season.

Alhaji Jawula, who is the chairman of the board, will be responsible for the Brong Ahafo Region with other members deployed to other regions.

The 1997 year group of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), “GIJ '97 Supreme” Alumni, has donated 1000 quantities of notepads and dairies to the institute as part of the homecoming activities of the group.

The Minister of Youth and Sports designate, Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, who made the donation on behalf of the group, expressed delight in giving back to the premier journalism training institute that helped shaped the lives of members.

The group also promised donating jerseys,footballs and other sporting kits to the institute.

According to him, the group intends to offer more support to the institute to facilitate its development.

Crystal Palace have signed striker Emmanuel Adebayor on a free transfer until the end of the season.

Adebayor, 31, was available after being released by Tottenham in September and has scored 94 Premier League goals for Spurs, Arsenal and Manchester City.

Britain has two Grand Slam singles semi-finalists for the first time since 1977 after victories for Johanna Konta and Andy Murray at the Australian Open.

Konta continued her remarkable run with a 6-4 6-1 win over China's Zhang Shuai in the quarter-finals and next faces German seventh seed Angelique Kerber.

Konta, ranked 47th, is the first British woman to reach a Grand Slam semi-final since Jo Durie made the US Open last four in 1983.

The chairman of the Premier League Board (PLB), Ashford Tettey-Oku, says they are awaiting the green light from the Executive Committee (ExCo) of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to officially release the fixtures for upcoming league for the 2015/16 season scheduled to commence on February 20.

The ExCo’s endorsement, according to Mr Tettey-Oku, was in compliance with Article 68 of the GFA statute, which requires the ExCo members to scrutinise the fixtures once generated before giving their endorsement for subsequent release.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic on Tuesday, the newly-appointed PLB boss said they had already generated the fixtures with their computer software but the PLB would ensure they were released as soon as the ExCo members were satisfied with them.

Ghana’s world title prospect, Raymond Commey, has secured a chance to annex the World Boxing Authority (WBA) International super bantamweight title.

Commey takes on Jun Qiu Xiao in a bout scheduled for February 12 at the Olympic Park Lunch, Zhou, China.

Information gathered by the GNA Sports indicated that the chances of the Ghanaian towards the world title would be enhanced if he defeated Xiao.

Former Chairman of Accra Hearts of Oak, Harry Zakkour, says he is not ready to take-over the club because it has been run into the ground by the current Board Chairman and majority shareholder, Togbe Afede XIV.

Togbe Afede, after enduring endless criticisms from the club's former management members, told the club's Annual General Meeting last November that he was ready to trade off his majority stake in the club, urging fans to buy him out.

However, Mr Zakkour, a vocal critic of Togbe Afede's management style, told the Graphic Sports yesterday in a telephone interview that the majority shareholder only wanted to do away with the club because he had ruined it.

"After spoiling the club, he wants to give the club out? It won't happen," an irritated Mr Zakkour said.

Barely a week after President John Dramani Mahama released his first reshuffle list, which indicated that Dr Mustapha Ahmed, Minister of Youth and Sports, would make way for Nii Lante Vanderpuye, some employees of the ministry have expressed worry over the rate of changes at their ministry, especially Dr Ahmed, whom they describe as “a father with an excellent human relations”. 

Yesterday, the Graphic Sports visited the offices of the ministry to appraise itself of how the workers were preparing for the exit of Dr Ahmed as well as the arrival and reception of the new minister and it was clear that the employees were unhappy with the removal of the Member of Parliament for Ayawaso North.

Newly promoted Premier League side, Techiman City Football Club, have appealed to the Premier League Board (PLB) of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to give them a special dispensation to register some additional players to enable them be make a debut in the league.

After months of legal tussle, the Techiman-based club were cleared and declared the legitimate champions of Zone Three of the Division One League and thus qualified to play in this season's Premier League.

However, uncertain of what their fate would be in the legal case, TCFC though beat the January 20 registration deadline, could not make any strong recruitment and are thus asking the special dispensation from the FA to beef up their squad.