Sitting in the stands for both the semi-finals and final of the 2016 Africa Women’s Championship (AWC) between Ghana and Cameroun, and then Nigeria versus Cameroun, respectively. I was thrilled about how well host nation Cameroun had pulled it through, raising the standard of organisation of women’s football in Africa.

However, I had to cringe at the thought that my dear country Ghana was the next to host the tournament in a year’s time. My apprehension was not about whether or not, Ghana had the capacity to pull off a wonderful event, but rather, my concern was over whether the competition in Ghana will pull the crowds, even if for free. Cameroun managed to pull the crowds to the stadium despite the fans being made to pay at the gates.

Thousands turned out at the Bukom Boxing Arena on Thursday afternoon at the Trust Sports Emporium to witness the first press conference for the bout between Braimah ‘Bukom Banku’ Kamoko (29-0, 22 KO’s) and Bastie Samir (15-0-1, 14 KO’s) slated for September 30 at the same venue.

However, the fans including men, women and children did not have it easy in making it into the Bukom Boxing Arena to watch their heroes engage in what turned out to be an anti-climatic battle of words.

Ghana’s Under-17 female football team, the Black Maidens, will begin their quest for qualification to the 2018 Women’s World Cup (WWC) in December,  with a game against either Sierra Leone or The Gambia. 

The Maidens, former bronze medalists, drew a bye in the preliminary round for the qualifiers that kick off in October and will join the fray, playing against the winners of the Sierra Leone v The Gambia game at that stage.

The Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Pius Enam Hadzide, has  given a firm assurance that the Sekondi Stadium at Essipong would be put in good condition before the WAFU tournament begins on September 9.

Expressing concern about the poor maintenance culture at the country’s sports facilities, he said such infrastructure should not be allowed to deteriorate before the authorities in charge of their management begin to seek funds to renovate them.

The Chief Executive Officer of the McDan Group of Companies, Dr Daniel McKorley has redeemed a pledge made to the Ghana Tennis Federation to organise a junior tennis competition before the end of the year.

Dr McKorley redeemed his pledge on Wednesday with the launch of the inaugural McDan Junior Tennis Open Championship on Wednesday at the Tennis Courts of the Accra Sports Stadium. The competition is scheduled to run between August 21-26 at the Accra Sports Stadium.

Real Madrid beat Barcelona 2-0 at the Bernabeu to win the Spanish Super Cup 5-1 on aggregate.

The Spanish and European champions were dominant, even without the suspended Cristiano Ronaldo.

Marco Asensio, who also scored in the 3-1 first-leg win, gave them an early lead with an excellent 25-yard strike.

Bundesliga legend, Tony Baffoe will usher in the 2017/2018 season on Friday night with the screening of the Bayern Munich versus Bayer Leverkusen at the Honey Suckle sports bar inside the A&C Shopping Mall East-Legon at 5:00 pm.

Baffoe, General Secretary of the Professional Footballers Association of Ghana (PFAG) was recently appointed an ambassador of the German Bundesliga and will be making his first appearance in that capacity at the event.

Spanish La Liga side, Las Palmas have come to an agreement with Kevin-Prince Boateng to cancel his contract, just two days before their season opener against Valencia and just three months after he penned a three-year extension.

Coach Paa Kwasi Fabin has resolved to ensure that the Black Starlets win the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in India in October despite the difficult working conditions he has endured over a long time.

In an interview with the Graphic Sports at the team's training base at Prampram in the Greater Accra Region yesterday, Coach Fabin was optimistic of finishing the task of winning the World Cup with the Black Starlets in India.

Accra Hearts of Oak central defender, Vincent Atinga, says he is excited about his invitation to the Black Stars B camp to help prepare for Burkina Faso in the second leg of the 2018 Championship of African Nations (CHAN) at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi on Sunday.

"I was not bothered about the late call-up because there are many players in Ghana who are equally good but they are not here so I am even fortunate to be here.

Kumasi Asante Kotoko last Monday recalled their five players from the Black Stars B camp to beef up their squad ahead of their outstanding MTN FA Cup quarter-final clash with Division One side, W. Nea Salamina, at the Baba Yara Stadium today at 3pm.

The players are goalkeeper Felix Annan, Amos Frimpong, Mohammed Awal, Emmanuel Gyamfi and striker Sadick Adams. In addition, Kotoko have delayed the release of central defender, Ahmed Adams, to the Stars B camp to enable him to feature in today’s encounter,

Accra Hearts of Oak midfielder, Thomas Abbey, believes the Black Stars B team is mentally, physically and spiritually ready to settle the scores with their Burkinabe counterparts in the second leg of their 2018 Championship of African Nations (CHAN) qualifier to be staged at the Baba Yara Stadium on Sunday.

Abbey noted that the Ghanaian side had learnt some useful lessons from the mistakes they committed in the first leg in Ouagadougou which ended in a 2-2 stalemate last Saturday and were in no mood to allow the Burkinabe to cause an upset in Kumasi. For the gifted Star, missing the CHAN would prove very costly to the players’ development.

Liverpool will take a one-goal advantage back to Anfield for the second leg of their Champions League play-off tie with Hoffenheim after Trent Alexander-Arnold's free-kick and an own goal earned them a hard-fought victory in Germany.

Rookie full-back Alexander-Arnold demonstrated a cutting edge lacking in some of his more experienced team-mates with an expertly taken set-piece that found the bottom corner of the home net in the 35th minute to give him his first goal for the club.

Recent events are enough signals for us to be careful of the minnows we underrated many years ago. Knowing that football is our passion, many countries pay a lot of attention when they are to play Ghana at international levels, it would, therefore, be a sad spectacle to see ourselves falling flat as we move forward.

We continuously bemoaned our fate for missing the World Cup for over 36 years after FIFA gave approval for Africa's single slot from its ninth edition in 1970. We, however, had the loudest applause when we finally qualified for the 2006 tourney held in Germany.

It will be recalled that at the end of the tournament, it was Italy which won the ultimate after beating France 5-3 on penalties.  Even though we were nowhere near the top four, the fact that we finished as one of the final 16 gave us a feeling that better days were ahead as we topped the other four African participants that year.

The sporting industry has once again been hit with the movements of football players from one club to another, involving huge sums of money. At the centre of these movements are the big clubs who are trying to consolidate their positions by splashing big money to bait star players ahead of the new football season which begins this month.

The big money spending clubs are mainly in the English, Spanish, German, Italian and French leagues where some of the clubs have even accused their fellow clubs of using unfair practices to entice and sign their players.

Notable among the latest transfers is the 200 million pounds spent by French club Paris Saint-Germain for the Brazilian star, Neymar Jr, who used to ply his trade for Barcelona. The money on Neymar Jr has thus become the most expensive transfer in world football history. He will earn £782,000 a week.

The previous record was held by Paul Pogba who was transferred from Juventus to Manchester United fo