Marked for Daniel Bukari
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom20 Dec 2027
Pressure builds in the Mara Sugar boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Alex Imbusia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Brian Ochieng knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Brian Ochieng trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market20 Dec 2027
The Alex Imbusia talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mara Sugar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market20 Dec 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Mara Sugar would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market6 Dec 2027
Isaac Omweri hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mara Sugar can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Alex Imbusia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alex Imbusia, and the manager let it.
Market6 Dec 2027
He is 18, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market6 Dec 2027
He is 17, and nobody at Mara Sugar signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market6 Dec 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mara Sugar, another week without a signature from Michael Wairimu.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Evans Omondi Ouma trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what WAFA can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Tempers go at WAFA
Yaw Amankwa was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match11 Sep 2027
WAFA get the job done against Medeama
A 1‑0 win over Medeama, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Afriyie Adjei and WAFA agree another 3 years.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Albert Nuhu knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Albert Nuhu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market13 Sep 2027
12 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Defensive actions: 10, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
In brief
-
Market
WAFA shop where it costs nothing
-
Market
Daniel Bukari leaves for nothing
-
Boardroom
The WAFA production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.20 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match3 Oct 2026
It needed Bernard Schlupp to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Wa All Stars, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at WAFA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Albert Boakye and WAFA agree another 3 years.