By Regina Benneh
Sunyani, May 06, GNA – The 2023 All Stars Football Festival was launched on Wednesday in Sunyani with an appeal to the media to highlight the Bono, Bono East and Ahafo Regions contributions to the football development in the country.
The festival, second in the succession is being jointly organised by the Business Africa Consulting (BAC) Group and the Bono-Ahafo Regional Football Association (BARFA) in recognition and honour of past and present local and national football stars from the three regions for their meritorious services through the discipline of football for the regions and Ghana’s progress.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Ralph Gyambrah, the BARFA Chairman who made the appeal claimed that the three regions combined had produced most football stars, administrators and investors than any other region in the country.
He therefore implored the media among other things to report positively through oral and written presentations about the past and present footballers from the three regions for their sterling and great contributions to football development in Ghana and beyond.
Mr. Gyambrah said all the longest serving senior national football team, the Black Stars captains with two of them, Kwasi Owusu of blessed memory and Asamoah-Gyan as top scorers in the history of Ghana football and Akwasi Appiah are natives of the Bono Region.
He said the regions had been the hub of Ghana’s football and deserved the fair share of the national cake in terms of resources and infrastructures towards their socio-economic development.
Dr. Ernest Koranteng, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the BAC Group explained the decision to organise this year’s edition of the Festival in the Bono-Ahafo was to celebrate the contributions of the regions to Ghana football over the years.
He mentioned legends like late Kwasi Owusu, Akwasi Appiah and Asamoah-Gyan who captained the Black Stars during their playing days, Dan Owusu, three consecutive times Ghana’s Premier Division goal king in the 1970’s and Alex Opoku who led Ghana’s Black Starlets ’91 to win the FIFA Under-17 World Cup that year in Italy among others as football icons who must be celebrated.
Other speakers at the event appealed to government and the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to consider the region by constructing a standard sport stadium and a standard football academy as a monument for the three regions’ enormous contribution to Ghana’s football development.
Some of the scheduled activities for the festival are all-star festival float in the Ahafo Region, a gala night on June 21st in Sunyani in honour of the legends who have contributed significantly to the success of the football industry since 1957 to date in both the regions and Ghana.
Furthermore, a durbar in honour of the Black Stars would be held at Dormaa-Ahenkro by Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyeman Badu II, the Paramount Chief of Dormaa Traditional Area, a media launch and soiree in Accra, conferences on club football businesses, a special curtain raiser football match at the Coronation Park in Sunyani and the all-star football match to climax the festival at the Nana Agyeman Badu I Park at Dormaa-Ahenkro.
Consequently, a ten-member local organising committee (LOC) with Mr. Ransford Antwi, the CEO of Suncity Radio in Sunyani was officially inaugurated by Mr. Frank Nelson, a Board Member of Accra Hearts of Oak Football Club.
Mr. Antwi, on behalf of the members, assured them that they would work effectively in collaboration with other stakeholders for the success of the festival to justify the confidence reposed in them.
He appealed to residents to bury their differences and forge ahead in unity for the holistic development of the regions and the nation in general.
GNA