Marked for Daniel Appiah
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Jan 2028
Chastening afternoon for BA All Stars
A 0‑3 beating by Hasaacas was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market10 Jan 2028
Hasaacas come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and BA All Stars did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what BA All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
$47.0K on the table at Medeama. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Godknows Dzakpasu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Jeffrey Bukari falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Daniel Appiah and BA All Stars agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Boubacar Dembele, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Berekum Chelsea waiting with a shirt. Nobody at BA All Stars is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market30 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Taofeek Otaniyi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BA All Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Bechem United; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Great Olympics have kept their man, and BA All Stars go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeffrey Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Kamaldeen Addo 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Appiah and BA All Stars agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
A loan move for Evans Oppong is in the works
BA All Stars have made the call to Great Olympics. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at BA All Stars. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces19 Jul 2027
Afriyie Amoah has gone, the accounts have $170.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Market19 Jul 2027
Business is business: Afriyie Amoah goes
Berekum Chelsea paid $170.0K and BA All Stars took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market19 Jul 2027
Francis Essien has left for Heart of Lions in a $78.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market19 Jul 2027
Great Olympics pay $22.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Jeffrey Bukari falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Kamaldeen Addo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market19 Jul 2027
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs BA All Stars money.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Andrew Ayew 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 Andrew Ayew trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Apr 2027
7 matches without a win for BA All Stars
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around BA All Stars are no longer polite ones.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Daniel Appiah: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” BA All Stars have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Kamaldeen Addo 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.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bernard Sulemana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match3 Apr 2027
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Nana Amoah gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Appiah and BA All Stars agree another 3 years.
Match3 Apr 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Francis Bukari moves up the pecking order
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Player ratings
Kwadwo Nuhu wins it from the bench
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Feb 2027
The bid was some way short and BA All Stars did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
No sign of nerves from Bernard Sulemana at 20 — 8.08
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bernard Sulemana did not need any: 8.08, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom15 Feb 2027
Still no name above the door at BA All Stars
Day 10 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Match13 Feb 2027
Aduana Stars left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Kamaldeen Addo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Bernard Sulemana has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeffrey Bukari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kwadwo Owusu and BA All Stars agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Bernard Ofori to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
The knee: Abeiku Appiah out for 100 days
100 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. BA All Stars lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Jeffrey Bukari decides it from twelve yards
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match14 Oct 2026
A 0‑0 win over Asante Kotoko, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Albert Boakye pops up at the right end — 7.90
7.90, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Daniel Appiah is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Bernard Sulemana falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Nana Amoah
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.