Ghana’s Portuguese Beach Soccer coach targets “impossible” feat

– Black Sharks in Morocco with Portuguese coach, Jhonny Da Conceicao

Ghana’s national beach soccer team, the Black Sharks may have already achieved the biggest shock of Morocco 2013. The President of the Ghana Beach Soccer Association Yaw Ampofo Ankrah has confirmed that they have secured the services of one of the most sought after and experienced beach soccer tacticians in the game.

The Portuguese coach, Jhonny Da Conceicao was in charge for the first time when Ghana played host nation Morocco in their opening game of the tournament.

With the youngest team in El Jadida-Morocco, the Black Sharks are considered huge underdogs in a tournament that features seasoned campaigners including former African champions and World Cup participants Senegal, Cameroon, Egypt and Nigeria.

GBSA President Ampofo Ankrah said negotiations with the coach started a few weeks ago and only concluded on the eve of the opening ceremony. ”Money was never the key issue but rather how both parties can benefit from a long term relationship especially as Ghana is a considered a raw team”

However, Conceicao who is a former Portugal beach soccer coach with nearly ten years experience, believes this is the best time for Ghana to be introduced to the powerful sport on sand.
”Look, this competition has the best sides from Africa so we can see our level and progress from here without being too worried about winning or losing as long as the boys fight in every game”

The 35 year old former player has coached at seven previous World Cup campaigns with his last job being manager of the United Arab Emirates, a team he successfully which he qualified to the upcoming world cup in Tahiti.

Coach Conceicao was the assistant-Manager for the Portuguese national side in 2004 and as head coach of Sporting Clube de Portugal, ha side he guided to win the National Beach Soccer Circuit in 2010.

In 2011 he joined the national team of the United Arab Emirates. He has also won three beach soccer titles in Europe, two titles in Mundialito, been runner-up and three times bronze medal winner in World Championships.

Taking charge of his first national team from Africa, the tactician clearly sees an opportunity to help develop beach soccer talent in Ghana.

 

Conceicao will be assisted by local coach Maxwell Kpeglo during the qualification tournament. Details of the contract were not immediately disclosed but it is understood that it would be a performance based agreement.

 

Posted on May 23, 2013

 

GBSA has new executives

– GBSA new executives

Just three days after dissolving its old executive board, congress of the Ghana Beach Soccer Association (GBSA) elected new members to steer the affairs of the association.

PRO of the National Sports Authority, Mr. Hamid Issaka, Mr. R. O Lamptey Jnr and Mr. Evans Amenumey from the Ghana Football Association GFA chaired and supervised the elections.

24 votes were cast for each of the positions with 17 club representatives and the seven contestants making up the electorate.

Yaw Ampofo Ankrah, the man largely credited with bringing organised beach soccer to Ghana was re-elected as President of the association un-opposed. His vice, Derrick Soli also stood un-opposed thus was re-elected into office.

Two positions were however contested; the Organizing Secretary position was contested between East Legon Sharks’ Nana Poku Amankwah and Nima Beach Soccer Club’s George Nyame. After ballots were counted, Nana Poku Amankwah was elected Organizing secretary with 21 out of the 24 votes while his opponent George Nyame had 3 votes.

With 13 votes, the position of treasurer was won by Dansoman Beach Soccer Club’s Nii Nmai Borketey whose opponent Ernest Sackey Narh of Layoca polled 11 votes.

The newly elected members were then sworn into office by Rev. Festus Dzagba of Action Chapel International.

The GBSA President immediately announced interim committee heads to form their teams and begin work in their respective areas of operation.

 

Committees and respective heads:

Legal – Lawyer Pius Austin/Zini Mohammed

Events/Development – Albert Frimpong

Sponsorship/Marketing – Fred Amoah

Technical – Coach Oti Akenteng

Referee – Ref. Paul Aggrey

National Team – Coach Maxwell Kpeglo

 

Posted on October 19, 2012

 

Ghana Beach Soccer Association to vote new Executives

The Ghana Beach Soccer Association will today vote new executives for the association.

Saturday 13^th October was a turning point in the fledgling life of Beach Soccer in Ghana.

And Wednesday 17^th October is to be another historic day.

At the Association’s congress held on Saturday, 13^th October, Beach Soccer clubs cast a vote of no confidence in the former Executive Board.

A new batch of executives is to be elected on Wednesday and the Interim Management Committee representative, Nii Laaye Bonne, has been speaking about preparations for the fresh elections.

“We had nominations opened on Monday to Tuesday up to 5:00pm. As at yesterday, we had only one person picking up forms for the President slot, two people picked up forms for the Vice-President slot, two people for the Organiser position, and one person for the Treasurer slot.” he said.

Speaking on Wednesday morning, Nii Laaye gave us an insight into events slated for the day.

“Currently, vetting is going on at the Accra Sports Stadium. Right after the vetting, we will go into Congress and then the elections will be held.

“Adequate preparations have been made, we have reps from the National Sports Authority, from the Electoral Commission who are to help us, the security services are also there to make everything smooth, free and fair.” he concluded.

Two representatives from each of the 20 registered Beach Soccer Clubs and one from the Referee Board will be taking part in the vote. To win a position, one must have half of the votes plus one.

 

Posted on October 17, 2012

 

Beach Soccer clubs vote to dissolve GBSA Executive Board

At the Association’s congress held on Saturday, 13^th October, it was to be a turning point in the fledgling life of Ghana Beach Soccer in Ghana.

In a bid to improve the performance of Ghana Beach Soccer Association executives, the clubs under the association cast a vote of no confidence in the current Executive Board. The now ‘Old Executive Board’ has been dissolved.

A new batch of executives is to be elected on Wednesday, 17^th October as they seek to improve on the work already done by the old board.

The Interim Management Committee has released a statement (below) to this effect, signed by Nii Laaye Bonne, the committee’s spokesman.

 

Beach Soccer Clubs force dissolution of executive board.

Congress of the Ghana Beach Soccer Association has voted to dissolve the current executive board after a heated delegates’ congress at the media centre of the Accra Sports Stadium.

15 out of the 17 delegates present passed a vote of no confidence in the current administration thus calling for the fresh elections which have been slated for Wednesday the 17thof October, 2012.

In a solid show of support for the man who brought organised beach soccer to Ghana, 15 delegates, voted for the board’s dissolution with the exception of the President Yaw Ampofo-Ankrah.

However in another twist, the GBSA boss rather used his veto power to cancel that motion which would have exempted him from the vote of no-confidence.

Instead, he insisted on a fresh slate for all executive committee members across board in order to weed out some non-functioning officials.

”I think it is important that we all stand up for accountability and I totally support the clubs call for fresh elections’’.

Meanwhile, Ampofo Ankrah fiercely counted what seemed to be an orchestrated attempt by two members of the GBSA to unseat him.

He said he was not fazed by accusations of ”non-accountability” and his ”one man show” levelled against him.

‘’I have nothing to hide but a solid track record as GBSA President, I would also want my stewardship to be put to the test”

His remarks followed a confrontation between the association’s Treasurer Cecil McFrancis and the PRO Seraphim Amanortey Amanor when the two disagreed on figures with the association’s accounts while the former was reading the statement to delegates.

An interim management committee has been set up headed by Patrick Johnson of the National Sports Authority, Bernard Brock of Osu Dolphins Club, Theophilus Armah of Teshie United and Referee Paul Aggrey of the Beach Soccer Referees Association.

According to Mr Armah, nomination forms would be available at the GBSA office from Monday at the Accra Sports Stadium.

He added that all potential candidates would be vetted by the IMC after a registration fee of GH100 has been paid.

Signed

Nii Laaye Bonne

GBSA IMC Spokesman

 

 

Posted on October 15, 2012

 

Clubs prepare for second Beach Soccer season

The Ghana Beach Soccer Association (GBSA) has confirmed Saturday 13th October as the day to kick-off to the 2012/13 Beach Soccer league season with full FIFA rules.

This comes after a challenging but exciting maiden season, which was played as a double tier league between 20 clubs and the GBSA say they expect an even more competitive season.

You will recall that AllSports reported to you that the Prampram Ghanaman Soccer Centre and La Beach Soccer Arena hosted the first ever FIFA Beach Soccer technical course navigated by FIFA instructor Talib Hilal, back in In July 2012.

The FIFA official to urge Ghana to form a national beach soccer team by the end of 2012, because of the impression made on him.

The stakes have thus been raised for clubs, officials and players alike in a bid to be part of the historic national beach soccer team.

Yaw Ampofo Ankrah, President of the GBSA, is confident that with the new partnership and support from the Ghana Football Association (GFA), beach soccer can meet the high expectations and match FIFA’s challenge.

He however cautions that there will not be a rush to form a national team if the right structures and conditions are not in place.

”We are all excited by the confidence and encouragement from FIFA and indeed, the date and venue for the CAF qualifiers for the 2013 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup are yet to be determined but in order to form a team to play qualifiers, we need to follow the right path and do things the right way with the GFA’s full input and support” he said to worlsportscentre.com.

The GBSA is also in talks with a few Ghanaian and international sports marketing experts in the USA, Spain, France and the UK who can advise on how best to take beach soccer in Ghana to the next level.

Even though beach soccer has been played for fun in Ghana for many years, it was only in 2008 that the first official competition was organised at the La Pleasure Beach resort.

Following that success, there have been coastal competitions in Senya Bereku in the Central region, Ada/Prampram in Greater Accra and Keta in the Volta region.

CAL Bank’s initial sponsorship of Gh¢ 40,000 for the 2011/12 season, meant that the association was able to organise two leagues simultaneously before another sponsor Clementia Contacto from South Africa got on board with a Gh¢ 25,000 package for the Division 1 league.

Keta Sunset from the Volta region emerged winners to claim the Championship title whilst Teshie United were crowned Division 1 Champions and with it automatic promotion to the top tier.

 

Posted on September 25, 2012

 

CAL Bank to sponsor Beach Soccer Championship League

After adopting Beach Soccer in 2011, the Ghana Beach Soccer Association (GBSA) has renewed its partnership with headline sponsor CAL Bank for another season. This follows fruitful discussions between the GBSA and CAL Bank; with the latter also keen to adopt the yet to be named national beach soccer team.

According to the GBSA media committee, the new League season will kick off in five weeks and will now be called the Cal Bank Beach Soccer Championship. This means that the second tier will become the Division 1 Beach Soccer League with a sponsor yet to be confirmed.

The Bank’s sponsorship has aided the rapid development and growth of Beach Soccer in Ghana. From just ten clubs in 2010, the GBSA increased its membership to twenty clubs with over 600 registered beach soccer players in 2011.

An exciting league season climaxed with an awards and coronation ceremony, followed by the first ever FIFA beach soccer workshop in Ghana and West Africa. At the end of the course, FIFA urged the GBSA to form a national team with the assistance of the Ghana Football Association (GFA).

By sheer coincidence, CAL Bank’s association with beach soccer has seen it rise from a position as the 13th largest bank in Ghana in June 2011 to the seventh position (June 2012) after growing its assets by 64 per cent within the period. CAL Bank is currently ranked the seventh largest bank, in terms of assets, out of the 25 banks operating in the country.

CAL Bank sees this gesture as a corporate and social responsibility, with which Beach Soccer can boast of clubs from several coastal communities.

Posted on September 10, 2012