Premier League clubs have sent a passionate appeal to football fans in the country to renew their passion for the game by attending local league matches when the new season begins on February 20.

This, according to the clubs, will not only help revive the interest in the game, but also help them raise money to support the clubs in the face of the current situation where there is no sponsorship for the Premier League.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, most senior club officials who pleaded anonymity, expressed worry about the apparent lack of interest in the local league compared to the interest fans have generated for foreign leagues, especially the top competitions in Europe, a situation which they also described as having had 'dire financial consequence on their finances so far as gate proceeds were concerned.'

Nigeria has crashed out of this year’s CHAN in Rwanda after they lost 1-0 to Guinea in a final Group C match in Rubavu yesterday.

Tunisia also thrashed Niger 5-0 to win Group C on five points, while Guinea, also on five points, finished a runners-up.

Nigeria was third on four points and Niger finished bottom with a point.

Ibrahima Sankhon put Guinea in front just before halftime, when he exploited poor Nigeria defending to score from inside the box.

Nigeria did not have clear sight at the Guinea goal with Osas Okoro wasting possibly the Eagles best chance when he elected to shoot from inside the box when he had several other free teammates to pass to.

Sunderland have offered £10m and striker Fabio Borini for Swansea City forward Andre Ayew, Sky sources understand.

The Black Cats have been pursuing Ayew for several weeks and are understood to have made an initial approach for the player 10 days ago.

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri believes a tough February fixture list could come to define the club's fairytale bid for the Premier League title.

Ranieri's men returned to the top of the table with a dominant 3-0 win over Stoke City last Saturday, before watching nearest rivals Manchester City and Arsenal drop points.

Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova for the 18th time in a row to reach the Australian Open semi-finals.

The defending champion, seeded number one and chasing a 22nd Grand Slam title, saw off fifth seed Sharapova 6-4 6-1 at Melbourne Park.

Chelsea's Ramires is close to a £25m move to Chinese side Jiangsu Suning.

The 28-year-old Brazil midfielder, signed from Benfica for about £17m in 2010, agreed a new four-year deal in October but has only started seven Premier League games this season.

Jiangsu finished ninth in China's top tier in 2015 and is managed by former Blues defender Dan Petrescu.

Borussia Dortmund and Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang admitted he was hurt by comments from Yaya Toure and Andre Ayew that he was undeserving of his African Player of the Year award.

Ivory Coast star Toure and Ghana international Ayew both featured in the African Cup of Nations final last year while Gabon exited in the first round.

Toure blasted Aubameyang's award as "indecent" and that it brought "shame" on the continent when it was made three weeks ago.

Chelsea winger Christian Atsu has signed for Malaga on loan until the end of the season – 24 hours after telling the BBC that he was joining Levante.

Before linking up with Javi Gracia's Malaga last Monday, the 24-year-old Ghana international said that he would imminently be joining their La Liga rivals, Levante.

Adidas, the IAAF's biggest sponsor, has told the athletics' world governing body it is to terminate their sponsorship deal four years early.

The sportswear giant informed the IAAF of its decision — understood to be a direct result of the doping scandal sweeping the sport - last week.

A solitary goal scored by Samuel Asare of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) hockey team was all his side needed to shoot down Seniors to jump to the second position in the five-club Ashanti Regional Hockey League at the Baba Yara Stadium last Saturday.

KNUST who are yet to rediscover the form that made them one of the dreaded sides in the league, put up a scintillating performance to freeze the surging runs of the Seniors throughout the game.

The result has now propelled them to the second position on 10 points, the same as Seniors, but with a better goal difference.

The case between Kumasi Asante Kotoko and the former CEO of the club, Dr K. K. Sarpong, was last Friday adjourned to February 15, 2016 by a Kumasi Commercial High Court.

This was because the parties were unable to finish the case management stage to set the tone for the trial.

But it was mainly due to the inability of the Kotoko Management to file all its statements to enable the trial judge, Justice Mrs Angelina Homiah, to set the date for the trial.

The two parties had earlier failed to reach an amicable settlement at a pre-trial conference held last year before another High Court and, therefore, decided to go through the normal trial to resolve the issues.

Ghana’s only qualifier for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, 800-metre runner Alex Amankwah, has been nominated for the inaugural Liquid Sports Ghana Athlete of the Year Award to be announced on Friday.

The award is aimed at promoting athletics in the country by throwing the spotlight on national athletes who excell both locally and internationally.

The list is dominated by athletes who helped Team Ghana win an impressive eight medals in athletics at the 2015 All African Games (AAG) in Congo-Brazzaville.

Four goals conceded in the first half by Rwanda saw Morocco cruise to victory in the teams' final Group A game of the first stage of CHAN 2016, but Rwanda still go through to the knockouts along with Cote d’Ivoire.

Ivory Coast joined defeated Gabon 4-1 in Butare in the other Group game yesterday and, therefore, go through with Rwanda to the quarterfinals.

As early as the 5th minute, Ernest Sugira made a good run on the right flank but no one picked up his pass, and Savio Nshuti's attempt was saved by Bourkadi. Then, five minutes later, Sugira had another scoring chance, but Bourkadi saved it easily as Morocco also forced a good save from Kwizera on the other end.

A report claiming Jose Mourinho wrote a six-page letter to Manchester United outlining his suitability to succeed Louis van Gaal as manager is "totally absurd", says his agent Jorge Mendes.

The Independent yesterday also claims Mourinho offered a "forensic analysis" of the Old Trafford squad in what it called a "love letter" to the club.

Diego Costa returned to haunt Arsenal once again as he scored the only goal in Chelsea's 1-0 victory at the Emirates having been involved in Per Mertesacker's sending-off.

Arsene Wenger's Premier League title hopefuls started brightly, but suffered a massive setback as Mertesacker was given his marching orders after 18 minutes.

Chelsea broke forward through Willian, and the Brazilian's weighted pass in behind Mertesacker led to the World Cup winner sliding in on Costa as last man to receive a red card from Mark Clattenburg.