Former Black Stars skipper, Stephen ‘Tornado’ Appiah, has been given a new role as the Technical Coordinator of the senior national team with a long-term view to grooming him into an expert for the nation.

The new portfolio, according to new Stars coach, Kwasi Appiah, is to empower the former Hearts of Oak and Juventus midfielder to become a great help to the nation in the near future.

Kwasi Appiah has been officially unveiled as the head coach of the senior national team, the Black Stars after he began his two-year stint on May 1 earlier this month.

As widely speculated, Appiah has made some changes to the technical staff of the team with former internationals, Ibrahim Tanko, Stephen Appiah and Richard Kingson joining the backroom staff.

Former Ghana international, Maxwell Konadu has been demoted in the coaching set-up under new Black Stars coach James Kwasi Appiah.

The long-term assistant coach of the Black Stars is now the 2nd Assistant Coach of the team as his previous post has been handed to former Cameroon assistant coach, Ibrahim Tanko.

StarTimes, the media rights holder for the Ghana Premier League, has agreed to give free decoder kits and two months subscription for the winners of this year’s Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) awards to be held on May 27.

Ghanaian winger David Accam has been named in the Major League Soccer (MLS) team of the week.

Accam, 26, was included in the team after registering a goal for Chicago Fire in the 4-1 mauling of Seattle Sounders over the weekend.

Ghana's quest to win medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games next April in Gold Coast, Australia has received a GH₵25,000 boost from the Australian High Commission in Ghana.

The sum was presented to the Ghana Olympic Committee by the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr Andrew Barnes on Monday in Accra.

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Isaac Kwame Asiamah, has expressed optimism that the funding deficit of sports programmes will soon be consigned to the past following the inauguration of a 13-member Technical Committee to oversee the creation of a National Sports Fund.

According to Mr Asiamah, the committee, headed by his deputy, Mr Pius Enam Hadzide, has been tasked to review and put in place an institutional framework that will explore alternative revenue streams aside from the national budget that will be used to cater for all the 43 sporting disciplines in the country.

Zonal defending champions, Ampem Darkoa and Hasaacas Ladies began their campaign in this year’s National Women’s League (NWL) with emphatic wins as the competition kicked off over the weekend.

Ampem Darkoa beat Lepo Ladies 4-2 in their game at the Ohene Ameyaw Park at Techiman, while Hasaacas Ladies won 3-1 against visiting Samaria Ladies at Bompeh Park, Takoradi.

Ghana's Under-17 male football team, the  Black Starlets were in imperious form on Sunday thrashing their Cameroonian counterparts 4-0 in their group opener at the 2017 CAF U-17 AFCON.

The comfortable victory was secured courtesy braces by skipper Eric Ayiah and striker Ibrahim Sulley.

Michael Essien and Persib Bandung missed an opportunity to move top of Indonesia Liga One on Saturday night after being held to a 0-0 draw at Didier Zokora's Semen Padang.

The two African legends went head-to-head from early in the second half when Essien came off the bench for Persib. But neither the former Ghana star nor Ivory Coast icon was able to help his new team break the deadlock, though Zokora was the busier of the two players.

The point means that Persib stays in second, below leaders PSM, while Semen Padang is in 10th.

The wife of Ghanaian football star Michael Essien, Mrs Akosua Puni Essien was left disappointed with her Italian third division club, Calcio Como as they failed to progress beyond the first round of playoffs for promotion to the Italian Serie B.

Como's promotion hopes were crushed after a 2-1 loss away at Piacenza on Sunday at the Stadio Leonardo Garilli.

Defending champion Immigration Service clawed their way back to the top spot after emphatic 3-0 wins against Team Coach Addo and Ashaiman Club in the ongoing Stanbic Bank-sponsored Table Tennis League being staged at the D.G. Hathiramani Sports of the Accra Sports Stadium last Saturday.

In the first round matches of  Week Two fixtures, Synergy lost 2-3 to Team Coach Addo, while SmartLine@Emefs beat Madina Stars 3-0 before Police lost 0-3 to Tesano Spinners.

Ghana’s rising triathlete Leila Werburi Zangwio won the female category of the 6th Kempinski-Cowbell Race Series held at the University of Ghana Swimming Pool yesterday.

Leila, 23, defended the title she won at the same venue early this year, as she finished tops in the 600m swimming, 18.9km biking and 5.6km run in a time of 1:24:49 hours, an improvement over her personal best of 1:26:59 hours.

Ghana's presence would be felt at this year's World Championship after wheelchair racing duo of Botsyo Nkegbe and Maclean Atsu Dzidzienyo secured qualification for the world event at a meet in the USA.

The two athletes won two medals each over the weekend and improved on their time during the Dessert Challenge competition in the USA to book a spot for the big competition.

Accra Hearts of Oak coach Frank Elliot Nuttal yesterday guided his charges to record a shocking 3-0 away win over city rivals Liberty Professionals at the Carl Reindorf Park at Dansoman. The win offered the Phobians an opportunity to keep holding on to the third position on the log with 26 points at the end of the first round of the league.