Marked for Patrick Boateng
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Feb 2028
No end in sight to BA All Stars's wait for a win
55 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at BA All Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Gladson Mohammed damages knee ligaments — 54 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 54 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
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.
Market7 Feb 2028
The offer from Wa All Stars for Abraham Afful was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market7 Feb 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” BA All Stars may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match5 Feb 2028
3 matches without a goal for BA All Stars
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Yaw 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Jan 2028
53 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at BA All Stars
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at BA All Stars is running low.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Gladson Mohammed damages knee ligaments — 68 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 68 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match24 Jan 2028
1 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match22 Jan 2028
0‑5 to Aduana Stars, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match22 Jan 2028
BA All Stars are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 10 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Market24 Jan 2028
Gladson Essien has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around BA All Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Yaw 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Emmanuel Djiku 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Jan 2028
51 matches without a win for BA All Stars
The run now stands at 51, and the questions being asked around BA All Stars are no longer polite ones.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Gladson Mohammed damages knee ligaments — 82 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 82 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match8 Jan 2028
Chastening afternoon for BA All Stars
A 0‑4 beating by Medeama was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Match8 Jan 2028
No clean sheets in sight for BA All Stars
8 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Market10 Jan 2028
The phone has started ringing about Abraham Afful again, and this time the name on the line is Wa All Stars. BA All Stars are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Yaw Sulemana in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Jan 2028
WAFA are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. BA All Stars will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gladson Ofori and BA All Stars agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Dec 2027
No end in sight to BA All Stars's wait for a win
47 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at BA All Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gladson Mohammed
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. BA All Stars lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market13 Dec 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 BA All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Ofer Gelbard 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaw Sulemana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match11 Dec 2027
BA All Stars are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match11 Dec 2027
Heart of Lions left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market5 Jul 2027
The unthinkable, invoiced: Thomas Ofori sold
Inter Allies arrived with $180.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Boardroom5 Jul 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
Abraham Afful 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 BA All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The BA All Stars board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The terraces5 Jul 2027
BA All Stars sell a favourite for $180.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Thomas Ofori was one of the reasons people came, and $180.0K does not replace that by itself.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwame Asante is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Osman Adjei in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
BA All Stars sign 4 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Jun 2027
Thabiso Msane 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 BA All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Jun 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BA All Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaw Sulemana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Osman Adjei 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Patrick Boateng trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Anger at BA All Stars spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom21 Jun 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at BA All Stars
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at BA All Stars is running low.
Market21 Jun 2027
Ernest Amoah 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 BA All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Market21 Jun 2027
Only the photograph left for Osman Adjei
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Osman Adjei will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BA All Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Yaw Sulemana in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ernest Amoah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 May 2027
Gladson Ofori damages knee ligaments — 44 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 44 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom3 May 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.
Market3 May 2027
Thomas Ofori 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 BA All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BA All Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 May 2027
Thomas Ofori in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaw Sulemana is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Mar 2027
28 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom8 Mar 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
Abraham Afful 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 BA All Stars can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Kamaldeen Afful: 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BA All Stars is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Yaw Sulemana in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Patrick Boateng and BA All Stars agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Andre Mensah 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.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Marked 7.35 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, BA All Stars had the best player on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Feb 2027
No end in sight to BA All Stars's wait for a win
26 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at BA All Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 Feb 2027
Position 16, 1 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market22 Feb 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at BA All Stars, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” BA All Stars may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Yaw Sulemana in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match20 Feb 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Andre Mensah 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Patrick Boateng, and the manager let it.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at BA All Stars, and it is a cruel one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Dec 2026
16 matches without a win for BA All Stars
The run now stands at 16, and the questions being asked around BA All Stars are no longer polite ones.
Market14 Dec 2026
Gladson Essien has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around BA All Stars they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Yaw Sulemana in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BA All Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Edmund Nuhu
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at BA All Stars training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ernest Amoah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Nov 2026
No end in sight to BA All Stars's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at BA All Stars has to find a result from somewhere.
Market16 Nov 2026
Only the photograph left for Gladson Essien
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gladson Essien will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around BA All Stars the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Thomas Ofori 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Yaw 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yaw Boakye, and the manager let it.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
The afternoon belonged to Kwame Asante
7.55, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. BA All Stars had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.