Deputy Minister of Sports commends Liquid Sports Ghana for organising “Making it Happen” seminar

Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Vincent Oppong-Asamoah commends Liquid Sports Ghana for organising “Making it Happen” seminar at Accra Academy on Thursday, 10th March, 2016. Hon. Oppong-Asamoah urged Liquid Sports Ghana to organise the seminar in other schools to spread the word about the need for students to take their studies seriously. This was after the Minister and students of the school had heard first hand tales of sacrifice, hardwork and sheer determination by three national sports icons at the seminar including former Ghana goalkeeper Ali Jara, taekwondo player Terrance Tetteh Asare and 2015 All African Games double silver medalist Patrick Yaw Obeng.

IAAF releases approved London 2017 World Championships timetable

 By Philip Otuo

The IAAF London 2017 entry standards for road events, combined events and the 10,000m are also confirmed
The competition timetable for the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London has been approved and released by the International Association of Athletics Federations.
Taking place from August 4-13, the event will feature finals in all but two of the sessions, with the men’s 10,000m final on Friday August 4 the first final to take place and the men’s 4x400m relay the last event of the championships to be held in the Olympic Stadium in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Sunday August 13.

See Photos Kenya Men S*x on Bench in A Garden

Philip Otuo,

 It seems guys from kach have got it going on than people from towns which makes it really sad. According to various sources the photos were taken by the police. Check out for yourself and be the judge…..

 

 

 

 

By: Mawuli Viwotor

Ghana’s first paracyclist and Africa’s three-time C2 Paracycling Champion, Alem Mumuni, has successfully ended his ‘Ride Out Polio’ campaign after riding from Accra through Koforidua to Kumasi and back to Accra.

Cranking the gears of change - Alem Mumuni

Next time you go for a ride, imagine you are cycling down the middle of the M25 with gaping potholes, far from roadworthy semi-trailers zipping by and a pedal has broken off so you’re forced to pedal with one leg. You can even try it if you want, but avoid the M25!
Alem Mumuni is a paralympian crippled by Polio when he was 2 years old. A passionate one-legged cyclist, he takes on such harrowing conditions around Accra whilst training hard to qualify for the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. Why does he constantly endanger his personal well-being for Paralympic glory? Well love and passion for cycling for a start. He has been riding with one leg since he learnt how to walk with a stick at 8 years old. But more importantly, it’s the personal ambition to raise awareness and change perceptions for disabled and under-privileged children in his beloved nation,

Ghana is a progressive African nation. In the last decade it has accelerated its economic growth and has achieved its Millenium Development Goal goal of halving poverty. All well and good BUT the credibility of this data is brought into question when you focus on indicators of progress like education and equality. Although schooling is subsidised, enrolment rates for primary and pre-primary education are only 88% and 62% respectively. Attendance is heavily influenced by family income. Many kids are put to work by their parents instead of attending school. To exacerbate the issue, quality of education is inhibited by the fact that only 62% of teachers actually have formal training.
Equality for disabled people is even more unbalanced. Much infrastructure does not cater for the disabled. Research shows 60% of respondents are of the opinion that people with disabilities (PWD) are not treated fairly in society and 43% think PWDs are discriminated against. In reality, one boy Alem has sponsored via the Alem Foundation, Martin, could not attend school anymore as his class was moved upstairs with no disabled access arranged!
So how do the needy get protected? At the moment it is not going to be the government as it faces major challenges with currency depreciation, a deepening energy crisis, macroeconomic imbalance, rising interest rates and inflation. It needs to be the people!
Alem is one of many in Ghana standing up and making a difference. Whilst training relentlessly for the London games, he and coach Alexandra Main (Head Coach for Ghana Paralympic team in 2012) founded the Alem Foundation  in order to support the local community that reside in a village called Old Akrade. Since 2012, Alem Foundation has awarded 33 education scholarships to children in the village and surrounding area, funded life-saving surgery for a beautiful little girl called Venyunye, sent two blind boys to a specialist blind school and recently delivered 70 water filters to secure a clean water resource for all families in the village. This is just the beginning of a big vision from a grassroots foundation!

I have the privilege in working with Alem to help him achieve his dream. I have seen what small amounts of money can do in Ghana.  £35 can give a family clean drinking water! Travelling to Ghana to meet the sponsored children and the community recently, I was moved by how ambitious these kids are. Even though they have nothing: no money, little food, no clean water (until now) and little clothing - just big hearts! Alem Foundation is empowered to give these kids the tools to succeed and is a direct-to-source charity so you know the money is going to where it needs to be!
Alem is wearing the yellow jersey with pride in this race for equality and opportunity. Cyclist or not, you can break free of the peloton too and make a difference. If you want to get involved check out the fundraising campaigns on crowdf unding platform - KriticalMass.com - www.kriticalmass.com/p/alemfoundation OR check out Alem’s journey to Rio - www.kriticalmass.com/p/alem2rio2016.

Credit :Alistair Lamond

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Gloria Sarfo glows in wine

 

By Philip Otuo

Doesn’t she look so good? Ghanaian actress Gloria Sarfo just shared some good looking photos on social media. Her hair, wine coloured outfit, and pink hills combination is soo on fleek.

Underage African footballers 'trafficked' to Laos

 By Philip Otuo,

African footballers as young as 14 are being trafficked to Asia and forced to sign contracts, the BBC has learnt.

Six minors are still with top Laos side Champasak United, after it imported 23 under-age players from West Africa to an unregistered football academy in February, a BBC investigation found.
Fifa regulations prohibit the movement of players to a foreign club or academy until they are 18.
The club, based in the southern city Pakse, denies any wrongdoing.
"Fifa is in contact with several member associations in order to gather all information to assess the matter and safeguard the interests of the minors," a Fifa spokesperson told the BBC.
It has been claimed that Champasak United, a newly-formed club which plays in Laos's top league, intends to profit by selling the players in future.

One young African player at the academy described his time at the club as 'like slave work'

 

"It's hard to live in a place with no windows", one young player told the BBC

In a clear breach of the world football governing body's rules, the club has fielded overseas players as young as 14 and 15 in league games this season.
One 14-year-old player, Liberia's Kesselly Kamara, who scored in a full league game, says he was forced into signing a six-year deal before playing for the senior team.
His contract promised him a salary and accommodation, but Kamara says he was never paid and had to sleep on the floor of the club's stadium - as did the rest of the travelling party.

Kamara's contract promised him a salary of $200 a month

"It was very bad because you can't have 30 people sleeping in one room," Kamara, who is now playing for a club back home in Liberia's top league, told the BBC.
All those who travelled to join the "IDSEA Champasak Asia African Football Academy" did so after being invited by former Liberia international Alex Karmo, who captained the club at the time.
Young players gratefully accepted the invitation, since Liberia lacks a football academy of its own, despite being the only African country to have produced a Fifa World Footballer of the Year - George Weah in 1995.

Alex Karmo calls himself "a manager for players from Africa" at the Laos side

"It's a fictitious academy, which was never legally established," said Liberian journalist and sports promoter Wleh Bedell, who led the group to Laos in February but who has since returned.
"It's an 'academy' that has no coach nor doctor. Karmo was the coach, the business manager, everything. It was completely absurd."

Players say they are rarely allowed to leave the stadium compound, where they live and train

Following initial pressure from both Fifa and global players' body FIFPro, Champasak released 17 teenagers from the original party, with Kamara among them, three months ago.
But six minors chose to remain.
FIFPro says that all have since signed contracts presented to them by Karmo, who describes himself as a "manager for players from Africa in Champasak", and club president Phonesavanh Khieulavong.

Kesselly Kamara signed the contract despite being just 14 years old

These appear to allow Champasak to pay the boys nothing at all, while also demanding that unrealistic conditions be met should the teenagers want to leave.
Karmo says the players are fed three times a day and paid every month.
"We don't give the [minors] professional contracts, just a contract that gives them bonuses," Khieulavong told the BBC.
Neither Khieulavong nor Karmo denied the presence of minors at the academies, although Karmo claimed there was just one - a 16-year-old from Guinea.
The BBC understands there are five more minors from Liberia at the club.
Along with eight senior players (six Liberians, a Ghanaian and Sierra Leonean), all are living in conditions described as "deplorable and disturbing" by Bedell.
For five months, they have been sleeping on meagre mattresses in a vast room that lacks any glass on its windows and a lock on the door.
"It's hard to live in a place with no windows. It made sleeping very difficult, because you are thinking about your life," said Kamara.
"Players are in this wild place that is reminiscent of the civil crisis in Liberia when people left their homes and were displaced, [taking shelter] in a makeshift building or auditorium," Bedell, who experienced his country's civil wars of 1989-96 and 1999-2003, told the BBC.
The minors' freedom of movement is restricted by the fact that they became illegal immigrants in March after their visas ran out.

Many of the young academy players have contracts, but no work visas

They are hoping to receive work permits but these are unlikely to arrive since all are underage.
Karmo, who insists that he did pay Kamara, admits nine of the 14 Africans do not have work permits but asserts that they have the right documentation to stay in Laos.
"Nobody is illegal. Everybody is legal," he told the BBC.
With the club having held their passports since their arrival, the boys rarely leave the stadium where they both live and train twice a day.
Despite the situation, not everyone wants the minors to leave Laos.
"I don't want him to come back to Liberia until he succeeds in his dream," said Bella Tapeh, the mother of one 17-year-old still in Pakse.
Some of those who have returned to Liberia have told the BBC they were poorly fed, rarely paid and received no medical assistance from the club despite contracting malaria and typhoid because of the conditions.
One also described their existence at Champasak United as akin to "slave work".
"This is a very serious situation," Stephane Burchkalter, a FIFPro official, told the BBC.
"It is shocking to FIFPro that a club from Laos, which - with all due respect - is a very small football country, can lure minor players from Liberia without Fifa noticing."
In a statement, FIFPro said it suspected this case was "probably the tip of the iceberg".
One NGO, Culture Foot Solidaire, estimates that 15,000 teenage footballers are moved out of West Africa every year - many of them illegally.
FIFPro has also called on Fifa to take action against the Laos Football Federation, which has so far failed to discipline Champasak for its alleged breach of the rules.
Evidence of clubs breaking regulations on signing international players under 18 is rare but European champions Barcelona are currently serving a transfer ban for this very offence.
Meanwhile, the parents of 12 boys found themselves in financial difficulty after taking loans to pay $550 towards the cost of the trip to Laos, with one case currently in the hands of Liberian police.
There are three exceptions to Fifa's rules on the movement of players under the age of 18, but none of them apply in this case.

Credit:

By Piers Edwards BBC Africa sport