International Football
Super Stores, Ghana’s Ashanti Kotoko Renew Rivalry
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Nigeria’s oldest existing football club, Stationery Stores will set the Teslim Balogun Stadium agog as it plans an international friendly tie with its age-long rivals, Kumasi Ashanti Kotoko of Ghana.
The management of the Nigerian club informed Sports Village Square that the match is planned as part of efforts to bring the once fanatically supported Nigerian club back into national prominence and also, a contribution to Lagos State at 50 celebrations.
Both Stores and Ashanti Kotoko set the continent agog in the late 1960s as their rivalry also bordered on bitterness.
Sports Village Square recalls a major instance when Stores made a debut in 1970 at the then Africa Cup of Champions Clubs which has now changed to CAF Champions League.
Both clubs were drawn together in the second round. Asante had the famous Ghanaian goalkeeper, Robert Mensah in goal at the time.
Stores won the ill-tempered first leg match, 3-2 at the then Liberty Stadium, Ibadan. The second leg match was similarly characterised.
With score line still goalless, trouble started in the second half when Ghana’s skipper Osei Kofi took a header which Stores’ Goalkeeper Peter Fregene snatched before it could prove dangerous.
But the Ugandan referee, Mukasa Misaevi who was sandwiched between the Kotoko captain and Fregene ordered a penalty kick which Stores initially disputed before being allowed to be taken.
The conversion of the kick put scores at 3-3 but Stores staged a walk out and the match was awarded to Asante Kotoko which went on to win the trophy that year.
The match soiled the Nigeria-Ghana sporting relationship to the point that the annual Nigeria-Ghana annual Academicals football tournament was cancelled that year.
Stores, this year proposed a friendly match which Asante Kotoko in a March 22 dated later to the Executive Chairman of the club, accepted.
In the letter addressed to Mr. Adetilewa Adebajo, Asante Kotoko conveyed the complements from His Royal Majesty, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II who is the life patron of the popular Ghanaian club.
No date has yet been fixed for the match. But according to Adebajo, the match venue will be the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.
Rose Padmore Yeboah, the Asante Kotoko administrative manager who signed the club’s acceptance letter remarked the club was studying the Ghanaian domestic league calendar which is on-going and will suggest the most suitable time.
Adebajo added that Insight Communications has been appointed to put the event together and has been mandated to secure sponsorship, branding, broadcast and media coverage.
The organisers are also seeking the assistance of Lagos State Sports Commission in securing Teslim Balogun Stadium as the venue and also the necessary support and security for the event. They also plan to invite Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for the event.
Representatives from four national players’ unions on Thursday launched a new global organisation in Madrid, which they say will strengthen footballers’ rights and improve dialogue with governing bodies.
Opening a new front in the battle over who speaks for players, the International Footballers’ Association (AIF) was unveiled, with David Aganzo, president of Spain’s Association of Footballers (AFE) and a former head of the global union FIFPRO, appointed to lead the organisation.
Players’ unions from Brazil, Mexico and Switzerland were also represented.
The initiative drew a swift rebuke from FIFPRO, which said in a statement that Aganzo was acting out of self-interest and aligning himself with organisations linked to football governing bodies, as well as groups expelled from FIFPRO over alleged mismanagement.
Aganzo rejected the criticism, saying he “will not seek confrontation with FIFPRO”.
The launch comes amid strained relations between players’ unions and football authorities, particularly over the expanding international match calendar.
Relations between FIFA and FIFPRO deteriorated in 2024 after the union lodged a complaint with the European Commission, arguing that the global governing body was abusing its dominant position by adding competitions without sufficient consultation.
Aganzo denied suggestions that the new initiative was backed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, but said “direct dialogue with FIFA” was essential.
AFE’s Extraordinary General Assembly approved the initiative in February with 99.8% of votes cast in favour of spearheading the creation of the AIF.
The same assembly also backed AFE’s withdrawal from FIFPRO, citing what it described as a “complete lack of transparency, as well as its total lack of dialogue with international bodies.”
“We represent over 30,000 footballers, and we come here with a new model aimed at safeguarding players’ rights and facilitating direct communication with all international bodies,” Aganzo told reporters.
“We are in contact with 15 to 20 unions already who were very aware of this moment and waiting for this announcement to make their move and join our initiative.”
He declined to identify any unions beyond those present.
Asked about a report that a senior envoy to U.S. President Donald Trump had urged FIFA to replace Iran with Italy at the upcoming World Cup, Aganzo urged caution.
“These are more political issues; on April 30th, I’ll be speaking to Gianni (Infantino) at the FIFA Congress, and we will discuss those things,” Aganzo said.
“People who want to go to the World Cup have to earn their place on sporting merit.”
-Reuters
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A new trial over the death of Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona will begin on Tuesday, with seven members of his medical team charged with negligent homicide nearly a year after a previous case collapsed in a mistrial.
An enduring presence in Argentina – from towering murals to tattoos, opens new tab – Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at 60, after a heart attack while he was recuperating from brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
A court in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires, will hear testimony from just under 100 witnesses as it tries Maradona’s medical team over alleged negligence in the death of the 1986 World Cup champion.
His medical team has denied wrongdoing. The defendants are psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychologist Carlos Angel Diaz, physician Nancy Edith Forlini, nurse Ricardo Almiron, head nurse Mariano Ariel Perroni, and physician Pedro Pablo Di Spagna. An eighth defendant, nurse Dahiana Madrid, will be tried in a separate jury trial, with no date yet set.
Two months into the first trial, which started last March, a mistrial was declared when one of three judges, Julieta Makintach, resigned after video surfaced showing her being interviewed by a camera crew in the corridors of the courthouse and in her office as part of a documentary, in breach of judicial rules.
The retrial will require both prosecutors and defense lawyers to reassess their strategies after the first trial aired photographs, videos, audio recordings and forensic evidence. Many witnesses, including Maradona’s children and his former wife, Claudia Villafane, have already testified.
Prosecutors argued in the initial trial that medical professionals broke treatment protocols and that the home where Maradona was recovering from surgery amounted to a “theatre of horror,” where necessary care was not provided.
The defense countered that his death was inevitable given his longstanding health problems. Maradona struggled for decades with cocaine and alcohol addiction.
The negligence charges emerged in 2021 after prosecutors appointed a medical board to investigate Maradona’s death. The panel concluded his medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless” manner.
-Reuters
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Aliou Cisse has been named coach of the Angola national team, the country’s football federation (FAF) announced on Thursday, 24 hours after the Senegalese left his post in Libya.
The 50-year-old coach, who led Senegal to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022, ended his short stint with the Libyan national team on Wednesday, after taking charge in March 2025.
“Welcome, Aliou Cisse, head coach of the Angola national team,” the FAF said on Facebook. Angola, which failed to reach this year’s World Cup, will start their 2027 AFCON qualifying campaign in September.
-Reuters
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