http://www.oleole.com/ghana/nationalteam/nlzo.html

Although the team did not qualify for the senior FIFA World Cup until 2006 they had actually qualified for five straight Olympic Games Football Tournaments when the tournament was still a full senior National Team competition. The team have won the African Cup of Nations four times[7] (in 1963, 1965, 1978, and 1982), making Ghana the second most successful team in the contest's history, behind Egypt.

Ghanaian teams has enjoyed considerable success in FIFA's age-restricted tournaments. The Ghana U17 team, the Black Starlets, have won the FIFA Under-17 World Cup title twice and finished as runner-up twice. The Ghana U20 team, the Black Satellites, have also finished as runner-up at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup twice. The Ghana Olympic Team, the Black Meteors, became the first African Country to win a medal in Football at the 1992 Summer Olympics.

After going through 2005 unbeaten, Ghana won the FIFA World Rankings Most Improved team of the year award and they reached the second round of the 2006 Germany World Cup.

History
The Ghana Amateur Football Association was founded in 1957, soon after the country's independence, and was affiliated to both CAF and FIFA the following year, Englishman George Ainsley being appointed coach of the national team.

In 1960, the Black Stars played Spanish giants Real Madrid, who were at the time Spanish, European and intercontinental champions, and drew 3-3.

Charles Kumi Gyamfi became coach in 1961, and Ghana won successive African Cup of Nations titles, in 1963 and 1965, and achieved their record win, 13-0 away to Kenya, shortly after the second of these. They also reached the final of the tournament in 1968 and 1970, losing 1-0 on each occasion, to DR Congo and Sudan respectively. Their domination of this tournament earned the country the nickname of "the Brazil of Africa" in the 1960s. The team had no success in FIFA World Cup qualification during this era, and failed to qualify for three successive African Cup of Nations in the 1970s, but qualified for the Olympic Games Football Tournaments, reaching the quarter finals in 1964 and withdrawing on political grounds in 1976 and 1980.

Ghana again won the African Cup of Nations in 1978, retaining the Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem Trophy in perpetuity for having won it three times, and 1982, but a relatively barren period followed, with the full national team dominating the short lived West African Nations Cup from 1982-87, but making little progress in continent-wide competitions until the appointment of Burkhard Ziese as coach in 1991. The 1992 African Cup of Nations, after three failures to reach the final tournament, saw Ghana finish second, beaten on penalties in the final by Côte d'Ivoire.

Disharmony among the squad, which eventually lead to parliamentary and executive intervention to settle issues between two of the team, Abedi Pele and Anthony Yeboah, may have played some part in the failure of the team to build on the successes of the national underage teams. Ghana slipped to 89th place in the FIFA World Rankings, but a new generation of players who went to the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship final became the core of the team at the 2002 African Cup of Nations and the 2004 Olympic Games, and were undefeated for a year in 2005 and reached the finals of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the first time the team had reached the global stage of the tournament. Ghana started with a 2-0 defeat to eventual champions Italy, but wins over the Czech Republic (2-0) and USA (2-1) saw them through to the second round, where they were beaten 3-0 by Brazil.

Team honours
African Cup of Nations: 4

1963, 1965, 1978, 1982
African Cup of Nations runners-up: 3

1968, 1970, 1992
West African Nations Cup: 5

1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987
All-African Games: 2 Bronze medals

1978, 2003

World Cup record
1962 - Did Not Qualify
1966 - Withdrew from Qualification
1970 to 1978 - Did Not Qualify
1982 - Withdrew from Qualification
1986 to 2002 - Did Not Qualify
2006 - Second Round

African Nations Cup record
 
The Ghana national team at the 2008 African Cup of Nations before the quarter-final match against Nigeria.1957 - Did not enter
1959 - Did not enter
1962 - Did not qualify
1963 - Champions
1965 - Champions
1968 - Second place
1970 - Second place
1972 to 1976 - Did not qualify
   1978 - Champions
1980 - Round 1
1982 - Champions
1984 - Round 1
1986 to 1990 - Did not qualify
1992 - Second place
1994 - Quarterfinals
   1996 - Fourth place
1998 - Round 1
2000 - Quarterfinals
2002 - Quarterfinals
2004 - Did not qualify
2006 - Round 1
2008 - Third Place
 

Ghana started with a 2-0 defeat to Italy. However, they bounced back with a shock 2-0 victory over the Czech Republic

 See Wikinews article:
Ghana surge past Czech Republic in Group E
followed by a 2-1 victory over the USA team

 See Wikinews article:
Ghana beat United States of America 2-1 in Group E
to finish second in Group E and continue through to the next round along with eventual Champions Italy. Ghana's unlikely run ended when they met defending World Champions Brazil in the Second Round. Influential player Michael Essien was suspended from the match for his two yellow card's earlier in the Tournament. Despite all of this, Ghana dictated the style and pace of this match, surprising many with several near-goals. In the end, Brazil won 3-0, although there was some controversy over the first two goals scored by Ronaldo and Adriano as they were both offside. Slovakian referee Ľuboš Micheľ also sent off Asamoah Gyan in the 82' for falling in the Brazilian penalty area. Zé Roberto scored the third for Brazil off a breakaway soon after.

 See Wikinews article:
Brazil knock-out Ghana 3-0 to grab quarter-final place
Ghana were the only African side to advance to Round 2 of 2006 FIFA World Cup (Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Angola, and Tunisia were all eliminated in group play), and the sixth nation in a row from Africa to progress beyond the group stages of the World Cup. Ghana was the youngest team in the FIFA World Cup 2006 with an average age of 23 yrs and 352 days.

Because of Ghana's performances in the tournament, there has been praise for their continuous efforts to push forward and their fearless attitude. Greece Coach Otto Rehhagel told FIFA.com, the teams you used to regard as a little behind tactically, the Africans for example, have caught up. They're physically even better off than we are, as they have tremendous natural athleticism, and they've come on enormously in the areas which were non-existent before, discipline and tactics for example. Every team which faced Ghana or Cote d'Ivoire knew they'd been in a game. FIFA.com says Black stars ascend to glory. BBC says: Ghana going forward.

Of the 32 countries that participated in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Ghana was ranked the 13th Best Nation by FIFA.

2006 FIFA World Cup Matches
Category Team A Result Team B Date Venue Scorers
Round of 16  Brazil 3-0  Ghana 27 June Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund Brazil: Ronaldo 5, Adriano 45+,
Ze Roberto 84)
First Half; Second Half
Group E  Ghana 2-1  United States 22 June Frankenstadion, Nuremberg Ghana Dramani 22, Appiah 47+; USA: Clint Dempsey 43)
Pre-Match; 1st Half; 2nd half
Group E  Ghana 2-0  Czech Republic 17 June RheinEnergieStadion, Cologne Ghana: Asamoah 2, Muntari 82) 
 
Group E  Italy 2-0  Ghana 12 June AWD-Arena, Hannover Italy: Pirlo, 40 Iaquinta 83)
 

Previous Nations Cup squads

Ghana Squad - 1963 African Cup of Nations
Ghana Squad - 1965 African Cup of Nations
Ghana Squad - 1968 African Cup of Nations
Ghana Squad - 1970 African Cup of Nations
Ghana Squad - 1978 African Cup of Nations
 Ghana Squad - 1980 African Cup of Nations
Ghana Squad - 1982 African Cup of Nations
Ghana Squad - 1984 African Cup of Nations
Ghana Squad - 1992 African Cup of Nations
Ghana Squad - 1994 African Cup of Nations
 Ghana Squad - 1996 African Cup of Nations
Ghana Squad - 1998 African Cup of Nations
Ghana Squad - 2000 African Cup of Nations
Ghana Squad - 2002 African Cup of Nations
Ghana Squad - 2006 African Cup of Nations
 

Famous players
Ghana has had great players in their rich history from the early 1950s, through the 1960s ANC Championship sides to 1970 when CAF instituted a new African Footballer of the Year Best player Awards to the 1990s when Abédi Pelé and Tony Yeboah received FIFA World Player of the Year top ten nominations and the 2000s when Sammy Kuffour and Michael Essien became FIFA World Class Players and received Ballon d'Or nominations. Ghana has never been short of talent. Abédi Pelé is one of the "FIFA 100" greatest living footballers of all-time.

On 13 January 2007, the Confederation of African Football voted Abedi Pele, Michael Essien, Tony Yeboah, Ibrahim Abdul Razak and Samuel Kuffour as members of the CAF Top 30 Best African Players of all-time. In addition, Abedi and Yeboah were voted as members of the Africa Best Player of the Century in 1999 by IFFHS.

The above description succinctly sums up the popularity of the game in Ghana. It has a wide support base and it is the only single event, which has the capacity to draw crowds well beyond 50,000 at a time.

Sundays are special days in the lives of Ghanaians because these are the days when premier league football matches are played.

As early as seven o'clock in the morning, spectators begin to mill around the stadium and soon, fans who want to watch matches form long queues.

These are common occurrences when the national team plays an international competitive match.

But sometimes, matches involving Kumasi Asante Kotoko and Accra
Hearts of Oak draw bigger crowds than what forms at international matches.

The popularity of the game manifests in the gossips matches generate as tough fixtures occupy prime time discussions on the airwaves, with supporters of clubs phoning in copiously to predict victories for their clubs.

No wonder a lot of Ghanaians were disappointed when the government failed to declare a public holiday when the Black Stars qualified for their first World Cup recently.

The panel of discussants for the final match against Cape Verde on the national television station, GTV had appealed to the government to declare a public holiday, thereby whetting the appetite of the population.

Though the government did not declare a public holiday, many Ghanaians failed to go to work and instead, stayed at home to celebrate the occasion.

Sometimes, when a crowd forms at a street corner somewhere in Ghana, one would be surprised to realise that the people are gathered there, watching a football kiddie game, which most times generates the same enthusiasm as a premier league match does.

The media follows the game with rapt attention and match previews, reviews and analysis form part of their daily programming.

At other sports associations in the capital, there is a hue and cry about the large attention and financial support football receives from the government and corporate Ghana.

Mr Saka Acquaye, General Secretary of the Handball Association of Ghana said if other sports could receives half the attention football receives from the government and the business community in terms of sponsorship, Ghana could win medals in international competitions more often than soccer does.

Because of the magnitude of football's support base and the level at which Ghanaians peg it above all other sports, other sporting disciplines are usually referred to s "the lesser known sports."

Sometimes, when the national team or a club side chalks a dignified success, football stories become the lead stories of the front pages of the newspapers.

On daily basis however, sports and particularly football reports are cast prominently at the back pages of newspapers and the newspaper, which has the hottest football story has the tendency to sell more than the others.

Ghanaians always want to know about the exploits of their footballers in Europe and the FM stations run daily programmes on such players.

At some commercial destinations such as the Team Station, people mass around radio sets when such programmes are aired.

The popularity of the game of football manifests in Ghana being a host to the African Cup of Nations three times already in 1963, 1978 and 2000 (co hosts with Nigeria) and is billed for the fourth hosting in 2008.

There are competitions at all levels and you could see kids as young as six playing matches in street corners or on some community playground, with a large crowd in attendance.

There are regular fixtures for retired footballers too. These matches are referred to "oldies matches" and the biggest on the calendar is the annual Ghana - Nigeria confrontation, which is hosted by Liberty Professionals Football Club at their Dansoman grounds.

The game is so popular that some clubs now have their newspapers.
Asante Kotoko Express, Hearts News and Soccer Express are some of
the football tabloids, which adore the news-stands each day.

Just a couple of days ago, it was alleged by a section of the media that a Catholic Church in Ashanti Region had cancelled one of its evening services to allow the congregation to watch the Black Stars play in a trial match.

Giant screens are mounted by some corporate organisations when the national team is on duty to afford Ghanaians to watch their team in a communal spirit and already, some companies had announced they would erect such screens for the World Cup.

In Ghana football cuts across class and religion as interest spreads from the corporate chief executive to the struggling man in the streets.

At the colts and amateur levels, financing of the game rests with people who love the game and have the wherewithal to support it without targeting immediate returns.

Such people provide kits for the teams, transport the players to and from match venues, foot their medical bills and pay training allowances from their own pockets.

Dr Albert Arthur, a spine specialist at Osu, a suburb of Accra who funds second division Fulham at Mamprobi in Accra, sums it up thus,"it is a sacrifice to put your money into clubs in the lower divisions because there are no gate fees when we play and nobody cares how you manage your team.

"Some of us love the game and are committed to seeing it grow without any financial rewards, that is why I am still in football," he said.

However, there is hope for some of the team administrators who are able to produce players who attract the attention of the big clubs.

The local clubs themselves do not pay anything substantial for the young players and their teams only celebrate when such players get foreign contracts. The amateur clubs, by agreement, take some percentage of the money on the sale of the player to make up for some of their loses.

On many occasions, some Of the amateur clubs go round on match days with boxes looking for donations from supporters or football lovers to meet their needs for the day.

The Division League (DOL) and the Premier leagues are the professional leagues in Ghana and their position is better than the amateur clubs.

Nonetheless, Division One clubs are also mostly run by individuals who have the means and in most cases, they incur a lot of debts, season after season.

Mariners, a DOL club is owned by Nii Dodoo, a business magnate who said he spends an average of one billion cedis ($100,000) annually in salaries and logistics on his club.

Alhaji Bimbo, owner of Maamobi Midjtlland who recently sold Black Star player Prince Tagoe to Saudi Arabian giants Al Ittihad for one million dollars said football is business and one should expect to reap reward for his investment.

He said he single-handedly finances his club and it is his intention to trade in his players to recoup what he had invested.

Even some premier clubs are funded solely by individuals who don't even have any management committee to assist them.

Kpando Heart of Lions is owned by 37-year- old Victor Ahiakpor and all the bills of the team are his responsibility.

He has recently hired a Dutch coach, Van de Plume and though some of his players are traded often to clubs outside Ghana, he has never disclosed how much he made in any of such transactions.

However, a communal team like Asante Kotoko derives its finances from the Asantehene's Palace. They indeed are the richest club in Ghana and their numerous high brow businessmen donate a lot of items to it regularly.

Kotoko players are always given gifts by their supporters, making them the most motivated club in Ghana.

On the other hand, most of the clubs always struggle to survive and a typical example is Accra Hearts of Oak who are now under a bailiff hammer and have been evicted from their secretariat due to their indebtedness to city rivals, Great Olympics.

Gate intakes serve as a source of income for the professional clubs. But the modality for such benefits vary from one centre as revenue from a particular league centre belongs to the home team with nothing going to the visiting team.

In some attractive matches in Accra and Kumasi gate intakes go as high as 1.5 billion cedis (about $150,000)

Until three seasons ago when Herbert Mensah took over the reigns as Chief Executive of King Faisal and tied a sponsorship knot with mobile phone makers, Nokia, Real Tamale United was the only club which played in branded jerseys, courtesy of a deal with fertilizer manufacturers, WAMCO.

Now Asaante Kotoko and Hearts of Oak play in jerseys with Areeba
(mobile phone network) logos for fees of about 1.5 billion cedis ($150,000) annually each and Liberty Professional earn 800 million cedis a year from Panasonic for embossing their logo on their jerseys.

Great Olympics had an undisclosed deal with Red Sea Building company of the United States, but other clubs are yet to secure any sponsorship deals.

For clubs, which qualify to participate in continental competitions, the government assists them with some money to meet their transportation cost but they always ask for more, saying the government largess is inadequate.

The national team had been tied to the apron strings of the government until last year.

Every pesewa (100 pesewas = 1 cedi) that the team required had come from the government until Yaw Osafo Mafo became minister of Education, Youth and Sports.

Though he is now disgraced out of office, Osafo Mafo left an indelible mark in Ghana football, as it was he who spearheaded massive corporate sponsorship for the Black Stars.

On transfer from the Finance Ministry to the Education, Youth and Sports Ministry in 2005, he and his friends brokered a sponsorship deal through EXP Momentum with Goldfields Ghana
Limited.

The deal worth $3 million changed the financial fortunes of the Black Stars and raised morale in camp, with a slogan "Goldfields, proud sponsors of the Black Stars."

Winning bonuses, which were $1,500 per match, rose to $3,000, then to $5,000 and by the close of the qualifiers, the Black Stars and their technical handlers earned as much as $8,000 per match.

The chartered accountant minister was also able to convince other corporate organisations to support the Black Star financially.

Guinness Ghana Limited followed with a donation of 1.5 billion cedis ($150,000) and other companies such as Continental Commodity Traders - 2.5 billion cedis, Ghana Commercial Bank and a host of other banks opened accounts at their branches to raise money for the Black Stars.

Ghana's foreign mission abroad have also persuaded Ghanaians living in their countries to donate to the Black Stars and a lot money has come through the ministry of Foreign Affairs to the team's coffers. , residents in Belgium and Botswana sent $5,000 and $1,000 respectively as their contribution to the Black Stars World Cup fund.

Puma had also brokered a kit deal with the Black Stars worth $12 million for three years and with FIFA's $3 million for Ghana's qualification to the World Cup, the Ghana Football Association is buoyant enough to undertake some developmental projects if the will and commitment are there

When the country's football teams win matches, Ghanaians of all shades, come together and celebrate in processions and carnivals.

However, with a population of over 20 million people, the playing fields in Ghana are, to say the least, grossly inadequate, going by the popularity of the
game.

Colts and basic school football are the first stratum of competitive football in Ghana but unfortunately, their matches are played on grassless pitches, which
are most often far smaller than the required dimensions for football.

And most of the players who qualify to play at the colts and basic school levels might have, at one time or the other, engaged in "gutter to gutter," the name
given to street football in Ghana.

Houses, which have big compounds serve as match venues for the little boys and girls in the area, so long as the landlord is willing to accommodate them.

The search for facilities goes on in every community where there are young boys and girls who have the appetite for football.

School compounds are invaded by footballers and in some instances, the players disrupt classes and refuse to stop their games in order to allow learning and teaching to go on.

In Accra, one of the most popular playing fields is a grassless 40 by 80 metres facility in front of the James Town chief's palace. Popularly called "Mantse
Agbonna," meaning in front of the Kings' gate, it serves as match venue for a lot of colts and basic school teams.

The dearth of football infrastructure in Ghana is a worrying issue for those who are concerned with the development of the Game.

Though the immediate post independence era resulted in the construction of sports stadiums and parks in every regional capital and some district headquarters, lack of maintenance has left most of them in dilapidated.

Even in Accra, the one sprawling Kaneshie Sports Complex, which was recently renamed Azumah Nelson Sports Complex, is in a very bad state and only hosts the training sessions of Accra Hearts of Oak, who have moved from their grassless waterfront training grounds at Lotteries in Accra.

With the main national stadium, Ohene Djan Sports Stadium under reconstruction for the 2008 African Cup of Nations, Hearts of Oak have moved their home matches to Obuasi Len Clay Stadium, over 300 km
from the capital, because the military facility in Accra, El Wak Stadium, the other alternative, is in a bad state, too.

In the 10 regions of the country, there isn't any of them which has more than two parks fit for competition.

The Volta Region has Ho and Kpando Sports Stadiums serving the entire region, while Sunyani Coronation Park and Berekum Golden City Park are all what the Brong Ahafo Region has.

Up North, the situation is worse. When the Kaladan Park was shut down for renovation in the last season, Real Tamale United had to adopt the Bolgatanga Park in the Upper East Region, 340 km away, as their home ground.

With Cape Coast and Swedru and the Winneba University of Education possessing playing fields of standard, Central Region is among the luckiest in Ghana in terms of football infrastructure.

Sekondi Gyandu Park's walls are in a deplorable condition and quite recently, the place was declared dangerous for league matches, culminating in repair
works being organized by the Western Regional Administration.

Towns or cities, which are lucky to have secondary or technical schools have soccer fields, which are of standard but most of such schools are situated away
from the inhabitants and only serve the interest of the schools.

In most communities, plots designated as community parks have been encroached upon mostly by wealthy persons who convert them to residential or business facilities.

Even big teams like Asante Kotoko and Hearts of Oak have failed to construct their own infrastructure.

Kotoko have declared their intention to host other African teams in the CAF Champions League at either the Len Clay Stadium at Obuasi or the Coronation Park in Sunyani as the national property, Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi has also been closed for reconstruction in preparation for the 2008 African Cup of Nations.

There is a new trend emerging in the construction of facilities, which gives hope to Ghana football.

Many former footballers are investing in the game by setting up football academies and constructing standard fields for their teams.

The leader in this category is former African footballer of the year, Abedi Pele, whose football school, Nania, in now in the Division One League, aiming to join the premiership.

Abedi had also constructed a decent field at Legon, near the University of Ghana and the turf is of very high standard - lush green and smooth.

Mohammed Polo, another former international has also got a soccer school and his field, which is as good as Abedi's in only about 200 metres away from that of Abedi.

Though Goldfields were the first Ghanaian club to construct a stadium, the Len Clay Stadium, Liberty Professionals has also built a Park at Dansoman, a
suburb of Accra, which serves as their home ground in the premiership.

Club owner Alhaji Sly Tetteh said he had acquired land on the Dodowa-Accra road and will construct a 20,000-seat stadium within three years.

Gomoah Fetteh Feyenoord Academy, which is owned by the mother club in Rotterdam, Holland has just constructed an artificial playing field in addition to the existing five standard fields they have at their school.

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has also commissioned the Prampram Centre of Excellence, which was constructed with an initial $450,000 grant from FIFA's Goal Project.

The facility has three playing fields, a hostel, a theatre hall and a restaurant, but the surfaces of the playing fields are now being developed and with time,
they would serve a good purpose for player development.

The oldies, Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko have acquired plots of land in Accra and Kumasi respectively to construct their own stadiums.

But while Kotoko has the backing of the Asantehene and interest from the Ghana Commercial Bank, Hearts of oak are cash strapped and one wonders when they could erect the first block or even cut the sod for commencement of work.

On the national front, work is going on in Tamale and Takoradi where new stadiums are being constructed for CAN 2008, while Accra and Kumasi are also receiving face lift.

With these developments being fast tracked, chances are that the state of facilities will improve drastically in due course.

The game soon caught up with some local residents who trooped to watch as often as one match was arranged.

No wonder some of the youth learned to kick the ball and due to its acceptability among the inhabitants, the first football club, Excelsior, was founded in 1905.

Excelsior had only one opponent and that was the British naval side, which supported the local team with logistics in order to get quality opposition to play against just for entertainment purposes.

The game soon became infectious, drawing the minds of some educated elites and businessmen in the new capital of Accra.

Thus in 1911, Accra Hearts of Oak was founded by Messrs C.B.Nartey, Akom Duncan, Simeon Okraku, Dodoo Annang, Darku Abbey, Amponsah Solomon, William Ocran and W.W. Bruce, among others.

The game immediately gained popularity in schools and and by 1924, competitions had begun among schools in Accra with Accra Royal School and Accra Government School being pioneers in such competitions.

At club level, Hearts of Oak played Cape Coast Excelsior periodically, generating further interest in the game.

In the words of Nana Kumi Gyamfi, known in soccer circles as C.K.
Gyamfi, one time captain of the Black Stars and three time coach of African Cup winning Ghanaian national team, "the interest spread like wild fire with schools clamouring to admit football players ahead of others."

The soccer fever spread to Ashanti and Kwawuland on the high grounds and though the business minded Kwawus did not found a club, they arranged for Hearts of Oak and Excelsior to play at their capital, Nkawkaw during Easter celebrations.

With its wealth in gold and cocoa, Ashanti followed in the founding of a football club when in 1935 Asante Kotoko was founded to represent the Ahanti Kingdom.

Thus, its supreme head was and still remains the sitting Asantehene, the King of Ashanti.

The popularity of the game in Ashanti compelled some other business interests to found the Great Ashantis Football Club to rival Asante Kotoko, while in Accra, Standfast also saw the light of day in 1953 but soon split into factions due to managerial problems.

In 1954, Accra Great Olympics was born out of the conflict and soon became the third force of Ghana Football after Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko.

Okwabi, one of the founding fathers of Standfast was allegedly expelled from the club and he left with three of his allies, Messrs Oblitey, Provencal and S.O. Glover to form a new team named Accra Great Olympics.

In the Volta Region, Kpando Mulpo and Ho Might Eagles came into being in 1953, while Kajabi Great Akans, Keta Highlanders and Dzodze Desert followed quickly.

The Abuakwa State with its capital at Kyebi, which had produced
renowned politicians such as Ofori Attah and J.B. Danquah, key figures in the struggle for independence also founded Susubiribi, as Juabenman founded Eastern Rovers in the regional capital of Koforidua.

In the north, Savanna Stars and Gbewaa, were becoming noticeable while Sekondi Hasaacas and Eleven Wise came alive in the Western Region and the birth place of the game, Cape Coast had also seen the establishment of two new clubs, Mysterious Dwarfs and Venomous Vipers.

With football clubs springing up in every nook and cranny of the country, competition among clubs became fierce and matches normally ended up in fights among rival supporters.

By 1954, soccer was popular enough to attract national attention with the formation of the Gold Coast XI, albeit the team played bare footed without any protection.

The main opponents of the national team were their counterparts in Nigeria and they competed for the annual Jalco Cup, which was donated by the management of the United Africa Company (UAC)

In one of such matches in 1957, Ghana defeated Nigeria by 7-0, a victory that is easily referred to with pride by members of the team who are still living.

As the game developed, great talents emerged and two of such talents were Chris Brandt and C.K. Gyamfi, two players who introduced the use of soccer boots into the country.

The two were members of the Gold Coast XI, which toured England and Wales in 1956.

"I admired the boots of the England players and when we came back Gyamfi and I ordered some but we were not allowed to use them in some matches because our opponents did not have any.

"We really fought hard to make organisers of matches allow us to play in boots and even we were criticised by the media when we first wanted to play in boots for the national team," expressed Chris Brandt, a former national team captain.

At independence in 1957, the government established the Central
Organisation of Sports (COS) with Ohene Djan as the Director.

Ohene Djan was directly responsible to the Prime Minister, Kwame Nkrumah who himself was an ardent sports lover.

Ohene Djan organised a national football league in 1958 and Accra Hearts of Oak won the maiden competition.

Meanwhile, the national soccer team was notching a chain of successes culminating in the government inviting foreign teams to come to Ghana to play matches.

Spanish giants, Real Madrid and Santos of Brazil were some of the clubs, which played against Ghanaian opposition in Accra. Egypt also played against the young independent Ghana periodically and such matches generated a lot of debate because the wife of Kwame Nkrumah, Madam Fathia was an Egyptian.

Having flexed her muscles satisfactorily with great foes in the soccer world, Ghana got affiliated to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and FIFA in 1958.

In 1960 Ohene Djan expanded the league to include teams from every region of the country so as to identify and nurture talents for the national team whose players were ageing.

He also hired a coach from Yugoslavia to take charge of the Black Stars.

Ghana got the nod to host the 1963 African Cup of Nations and true to form the Black Stars won the trophy at their first participation, beating Sudan 3-0 in the finals.

Soon after that feat C.K. Gyamfi and Chris Brandt were sent to the former Eastern Germany to train as coaches. Indeed, Gyamfi was playing professional football at Fortuna Dusseldorf in Germany before he was drafted to the coaching course, thus ending his career.

But the mercurial ball player who played an important part in the success story of the Black Stars in 1963 did not regret anything.

"I was determined to achieve something for my country and I seized the opportunity to continue with my contributions to the development of the game, this time from the bench as a coach."

Now a chief in his Okorasi village in the Eastern region of Ghana and battling with a stroke he suffered in Nigeria while on official duty as a CAF/FIFA Instructor, C.K. Gyamfi recalls with nostalgia his reformations in the Black Stars and his successful defence of the African title as head coach.

"I included a lot of young players in my team; players such as Frank Odoi, Willie Evans, Jones Attuquayefio, Osei Kofi and a few others who provided fresh oil to the machine and we retained the cup," he said.

After the 1965 success during which the Black Stars beat hosts Tunisia 3-2 in the finals, the Ghanaians won two silver medals as they lost in the finals of the next two editions.

It was siesta time for Ghana from then until General Kutu Acheampong supervised another successful hosting bid for the 1978 edition of the competition.

Ghana won again on home soil beating Uganda 2-0 in the finals and in 1982, the Black Stars won their fourth championship in Libya with an awesome 8-7 penalty triumph over the hosts.

Meanwhile, Ohene Djan had established feeder teams for the Black Stars, which came under various names such as the Academicals, made up of players selected from school completions, The Black Meteors, a bunch of young talented players and New Horizon, another crop of players knocking at the doors of fame.

The Black Stars entered the race for the World Cup for the first time in 1962 but they fell by the way side and could not reach Chile.

In 1970 the Black Stars got pipped by Morocco, which won the only ticket to represent Africa.

It has been one failed attempt after the other with local and foreign coaches manning the saddle in the quest for a World Cup berth.

In the mean time, the success of the youth teams at world championships has opened doors for many of the budding stars to play professional football in Europe and elsewhere.

Remarkably, Ghana was the first African country to win an Olympic medal in soccer, a bronze in Spain 1992.

In 1995, Ghana introduced professional football and footballers began signing contracts with their clubs and earning substantial sums to meet their needs.

The introduction of professional football has led to the establishment of many football schools popularly referred to as 'Soccer Academies'.

Some of the academies are funded by some European clubs, which believe in the abundance of talent in Ghana and desire to harness and harvest such talents for their needs.

First it was Dutch giants Ajax Amsterdam, which linked up with Obuasi Goldfields and established an academy, then Feyenoord of Rotterdam also from Holland built the Gomoa Fetteh Academy.

Ghanaian professional footballers, notably Abedi Pele, Mohammed Polo and Ibrahim Sunday have all established academies where they are grooming young footballers into stars.

Also there is an emergence of player managers who identify young, talented players from the streets and invest in them, with the hope that they would sparkle some day and yield the desired financial benefits to them.

Just a few months ago, FIFA compelled the government of Ghana, which had all these while nominated two candidates to be voted for, for the chairmanship of the GFA to hands off that affairs of
the Association.

The result is that, representatives of clubs who have aligned themselves under the designation of the Ghana League Clubs Association (GHALCA) have assumed total control of the management
of the game.

GHALCA members constituted the electoral college which made 37 year old lawyer Kwasi Nyantekyi president of the GFA with a four- year mandate about six months ago.

Despite the ups and downs in the developmental process, the Black Stars are in the World Cup for the first time and maybe, they could attain another first for African football.