Ghanaian junior athlete, Richard Seklorwu, was last Saturday named the Best Sports Personality at the 2015 Ghana Sports Excellence Awards, capping a stellar year which saw him win gold in the boys’ long jump at the Samoa 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games.

The flagship award was Seklorwu's second on the night as he had earlier received the Best Male Athlete award for a season which saw him jump 7.67 metres to win the Commonwealth Youth Games gold medal ahead of Australia’s Thomas Wilson and Benjamin Fisher, who jumped 7.48 metres and 7.38 metres respectively.

The T. I. Amass Senior High School student saw off Deputy Black Stars skipper, Andre Ayew; hockey starlet, Nafisatu Umaru, and tennis star, George Darko, to win the Best Sports Personality award.

It is the wish of all Ghanaians for our beloved country to be soundly developed. Two days ago, I reached out for the 1992 Constitution and found something exceedingly glorious and worth imbibing.

What I saw had been written in the Constitution of this country since 1992 and I know that every public officer, politician and all other enlightened citizens have seen it.

The legal luminaries in the country have seen it, I guess, but it appears very few Ghanaians have either given it a deep thought or pondered over the merits of the declaration.

Sepp Blatter's 17-year reign as head of world governing body FIFA has ended in ignominy after the world body's ethics committee banned him for eight years.

For months football's most powerful man has been weighed down by a slew of corruption allegations.

He has always denied the allegations, and will appeal against the eight-year ban, but it seems impossible for him to continue as FIFA president now.

He was banned for allegedly signing a contract "unfavourable" to football's governing body and making a "disloyal payment" to UEFA president Michel Platini, who has also been suspended for eight years.

The ethics committee launched its investigation after the Swiss attorney-general began its own investigation into the disloyal payment and this is still ongoing.

The embattled FIFA head had already announced earlier this year that he would be stepping down as president next February following the indictment of key FIFA officials on corruption charge

Former Black Stars goalkeeper, Daniel Agyei, says the only stumbling block between him and a deal with Accra Hearts of Oak is lack of agreement over a proposal by the player.

Agyei, whose current deal with Liberty Professionals ends before the commencement of the new season, has disclosed that  Hearts’ offer, however, fell below his expectation.

In an interview with the Graphic Sports, the 26-year-old said: “We had  talks with Hearts and we presented a proposal but there was no agreement”.

The late Charles Kumi Gyamfi, one of Africa’s football greats, will be honoured with an Africa Legend Award at the 2015 edition of the Glo-CAF Awards in Abuja on January 7 next year.

Born on December 4, 1929, Gyamfi had his secondary school education at  Accra Academy, the same school that produced Asamoah Gyan.

He played his club football for Koforidua Sailors Football Club, Cape Coast Ebusua Dwarfs, Asante Kotoko, Kumasi Great Ashantis and Hearts of Oak.

The Shamo Quaye Memorial and Inter-site/community football competition will kick off today at the Twedaase Primary School park in Community One, Tema.

The week-long  tournament, which will end on January 2, 2016, is expected to attract about 20 teams from the various sites and communities in and around Tema.

Arguably two of Ghana's rebranded boxers, Brimah Kamoko, and his long-time pal, Ayitey Powers, have each predicted a knockout in their 'repeat or revenge' fight on Boxing Day at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi.

The two boxers brought Kumasi alive last Friday in a prematch conference to sell the fight supported by bus loads of fans from Bukom and Korle Gonno in Accra.

Characteristically, music, dance, drama and insults, some unprintable, especially from the camp of Kamoko, aka Banku, threw the jam-packed auditorium off gear momentarily before the programme took off.

All indeed, a colossus is gone. The story of Nana Kumi Gyamfi, better known by the young and old as C.K. Gyamfi who was buried last Saturday at his native Okorase in Akuapim with all the regalia and tradition as the Guantoahene, gives all lovers of football some level of satisfaction.

 It must be seen as a happy celebration of life for a man seen better for his prowess as a footballer, a teacher, administrator and advisor in our national passion.

May we say goodbye to the man I saw live first as far back as 1954 when he led Asante Kotoko and created the wildest historic uproar at Abetifi in the Eastern Region in one of the most memorable Easter festivities.

The then Kwahu District was agog, and the hottest spot was Abetifi on that Easter Sunday, where the two most glamorous clubs, Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko were scheduled to climax the whole entertainment with football, and at once it attracted all citizens of Kwahu to the fenced Abetifi Pre

Dear Sir, Some media tributes to the late Ghana soccer legend, have since his death tended to describe him as the first captain of the national football team.

But as l can recall, the first such captain was E.C. Briandt, who captained the then Gold Coast XI (Eleven) and also Accra Hearts of Oak.

It was on attainment of independence in 1957 that the team was re-christened the Black Stars and later captained by C.K. Gyamfi, both as player and coach in 1963.

As the start of the Premier League is in limbo, the decision by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to hold a two-day meeting aimed at educating stakeholders, particularly club owners and executives, as well as the football organising bodies themselves, on the way forward is worthwhile.

It is pertinent to note the observation by the President of the GFA, Kwesi Nyantakyi, that the small size of the Ghanaian economy, coupled with other factors, had greatly affected the smooth organisation of the game in our country.

For instance, he lamented the fact that it had been a perennial challenge for owners of football clubs to pay the needed salaries to their players on a regular basis, even as small as the sums might be, which must be why some of the quality players were being lost to such unpopular football destinations as Vietnam and Thailand (see back page).

We can’t agree more with the FA president. And it is to find antidotes to such challenges and rescue our l

As has been the tradition, Manchester United last Monday embarked on their annual Christmas visit to the Manchester Royal Children's Hospital to bring some Christmas cheer to young patients.

As expected, the presence of the Old Trafford stars at the hospital lifted the spirit of the patients who were happy to have met the stars.

One after the other the players took turns to visit the children in their various wards before taking pictures and present Christmas gifts.

Ander Herrera, Juan Mata, Memphis Depay, Jesse Lingard, Morgan Schneiderlin,

Osu Hawks last Sunday kept their 10-week unbeaten record intact when they defeated Ashaiman Tigers 80-74 to win the Rush Community Basketball Tournament held at the Accra Polytechnic multi-purpose court in Accra.

The Hawks finished tops of the regular season with eight points ahead the three other semi-finalists -Tema Sharks, Ashaiman Tigers and Tudu Warriors -who were tied on seven points heading into the finals.

Their superiority throughout the tournament was felt especially in the second semi-finals, where Benjamin Debrah and Emmanuel Dickson exhibited rare skills, making it possible for them to brush aside Tudu Warriors 62-47 to book a spot in the finals.

The Hawks, coached by Dua Daniel Sowah, also dealt expertly with the unruly behaviour of the Tudu Warriors’ supporters who staged a court invasion in the second quarter as their team struggled to cope in the face of an unrelenting attacking forays.

As part of plans to improve the standard and attendance of domestic league matches in the upcoming and subsequent seasons, club officials have been advised to market their clubs more effectively.

Dr Kwaku Ofosu Asare, who gave the advice during the FA's two-day retreat to implement media strategies and PR techniques, said marketing their clubs would not only attract more football fans to patronise the indigenous leagues but also boost their values ahead of the start of the new season and subsequent ones.

Speaking on the topic ‘How to use the media and PR to attract fans to the stadium at the Alisa Hotel yesterday, Dr Ofosu Asare, said it was important for club owners to use different media and PR techniques to accomplish the task of attracting more football fans to patronise the local leagues.

“Currently, the media have become a very powerful tool so the clubs should create a media platform to communicate with their fans and implement techniques like selling

The President of the Ghana Weightlifting Federation (GWF), Ben Nunoo Mensah, has urged the leadership of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) to practise good governance, accountability and transparency.

In an interview with the Graphic Sports, Mr Nunoo Mensah argued that some recent actions by the GOC were creating the impression that it was no longer interested in accounting to the various stakeholders.

According to him the GOC failed to present the 2016 budget for congress for approval in accordance with the committee’s constitution.

Besides, he wondered why the committee failed to disclose the amount it had received from the Olympic Solidarity Fund which it had already disbursed.

“Under normal circumstances and in accordance with the GOC constitution the committe’s budget must be presented before congress, for approval before disbursement.

“But this is not the case this time around as this would have enabled delegates to demand answers to som

The President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kwesi Nyantakyi, says poor remuneration of footballers in the local league is accountable to their abandoning the league for unpopular destinations in Asia, such as Thailand, Vietnam, among others.

The GFA boss made the observation last Monday at the opening ceremony of a two-day Media and Marketing seminar for Premier/Division One Clubs in Accra.

Mr Nyantakyi, who owns Ghana Premier League side, Wa All Stars, disclosed that clubs were helpless when offers came in for their players from such countries because currently no club in the Ghana Premier League was able to offer a player $1,000 as monthly wage.

He said, "By making our league competitive, it means that we will be able to raise revenues and pay attractive salaries to our players and stem the perennial tide of the exodus to Europe.