Ghanaian player Bernard Tekpetey has been banned after he was sent off for his reaction to alleged racist provocation from rival supporters during an Austrian Cup match.

The Austrian league’s disciplinary committee said that Tekpetey, who plays for top-flight club Altach on loan from Germany’s Schalke 04, was handed a two-match ban for unsporting behaviour in the match away to third tier Union Gurten.

The second match of the 20-year-old’s ban has been suspended for six months, the committee said in a statement.

Former skipper of Kumasi Asante Kotoko and a member of the Black Stars, Opoku Afriyie, has admonished footballers to learn and perfect the art of goal scoring as a way of improving their value and also make the Ghana league more attractive.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic at his Kumasi base, the football legend gave a damning verdict on Ghana’s topflight league, saying it lacked the “flavour” to attract football fans to the stadiums, primarily because strikers lacked the instincts and art to score goals which was the life blood of the game.

Ghana’s coach Paa Kwesi Fabin has named his strong final 21-man squad for the FIFA U-17 World Cup to be held in India next month.

The Black Starlets boss named the squad just hours after playing Mali in a pre-World Cup friendly at their training base in Abu Dhabi., United Arab Emirates.

Confederation of African Football (CAF) President, Ahmad Ahmad, alongside his lieutenants are in town to hold an Executive Committee meeting on Saturday to deliberate on pertinent football matters confronting the continent.

Accompanied by the Second vice President of CAF, Constant Omari, Mr Ahmad  was met on his arrival at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra yesterday by Ghana Football Association (GFA) President, Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi, and acting GFA General Secretary, Alex Asante.

West Africa rivals, Ghana and Nigeria will on Sunday, clash in the final of the sub-regional tournament, the WAFU Cup after both sides won their semi-final matches at the  Cape Coast Stadium on Thursday.

Ghana’s Black Stars B beat Niger with an emphatic 2-0 to set up this mouth-watering final against Nigeria, in what will be  a replay of the final Group A game at this competition, to draw the curtains on what has been an enthralling competition.

The D.G. Hathiramani Hall of the Accra Sports Stadium was set agog last Saturday when the female side of Team Coach Addo clashed with Ghana Army in a sixth week fixture of the second round of the Stanbic Bank-Graphic Sports National Table Tennis League.

The President of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC), Mr Ben Nunoo Mensah, has sought audience with the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Dr Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, to set the tone for Ghana’s maiden participation in the World Islamic Solidarity Games scheduled for Istanbul, Turkey, in 2021.

To this end, the GOC and the Islamic community in Ghana led by the National Chief Imam have agreed to begin the necessary paper works to pave way for Ghana to become a member of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation (ISSF), organisers of the quadrennial games.

Organisers of the maiden edition of the Head of State Invitational Golf Tournament slated for October 6 at the Achimota Golf Course have vowed to contribute towards the development of the country by bringing together business leaders to lay the foundation of $50 million worth of business.

In an address at the launch of the competition today in Accra, the President of the Ghana Golf Association, Mike Aggrey, said stroke play format contest will be contested by 90 carefully selected leaders of industry, who will use the opportunity to explore business opportunities.

Black Stars B deputy skipper, Amos Frimpong, has attributed his side's 0-2 defeat to Nigeria in the ongoing West Africa Football Union (WAFU) Cup tournament to injuries to key players.

Frimpong, who himself sustained an injury during last Monday’s last Group A game, believes the team were ready to bounce back in the semi-finals tomorrow.

Accra Hearts of Oak midfielder, Thomas Abbey, has urged the public to desist from castigating Coach Maxwell Konadu for his decision to play some of his players out of position in the ongoing WAFU Nations Cup.

Abbey, who was adjudged the NASCO Man-of-the-match in their 2-0 win over Guinea last Thursday, noted that Coach Konadu’s decision was rather helping the players to discover their potentials and skills, as well as challenging them to give of their best.

Accra Hearts of Oak say it would take more than a fortune for arch-rivals Kumasi Asante Kotoko to price out their revered midfielder, Winful Cobbinah, from the club.

Cobbinah, together with teammate Thomas Abbey, have become the main targets of some local clubs, with media reports suggesting the Porcupine Warriors were ready to break the bank to lure the duo to the Garden City.

Ghana coach, Maxwell Konadu, has charged the team to put last Monday’s 2-0 loss to Nigeria behind them and ‘fight’ for the ultimate in the ongoing WAFU tournament, offensive midfielder Thomas Abbey has revealed.

Abbey, who missed Ghana’s 0-2 loss to Nigeria last Monday due to injury, told the Graphic Sports that Coach Konadu tasked them to banish last Monday’s loss by going all out to win tomorrow’s semi-final clash in Cape Coast to redeem the team’s image.

Black Stars B coach, Maxwell Konadu, says he would approach tomorrow’s semi-final game the same positive way as he did in their previous games to ensure victory a place in the final of the WAFU Cup of Nations.

Konadu said the wining mentality with which his side started the competition would be maintained tomorrow, and he was confident his team had what it took to scale the semifinal hurdle and later channel their energies into winning the final on Sunday.

Islam Slimani's superb strike helped Leicester see off a wasteful Liverpool at the King Power Stadium to reach the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.

The Algeria striker's left-footed shot found the top corner after substitute Shinji Okazaki had put the Foxes ahead.

Barnsley coach Paul Heckingbottom has revealed that Andy Yiadom is likely to be back in the first-team reckoning by the middle of next month.

Yiadom is currently sidelined with a back issue and is due to undergo a scan today, having missed the Reds’ last seven matches in all competitions - having made just two appearances this term.