The greatest coach in Ghanaian - or rather African - history, Charles Kumi Gyamfi ended his illustrious coaching career in Asante territory, having laid the foundations for a successful future.1 As a player he set notable firsts in Kumasi. Asante Kotoko built on the success that he brought - first with the legendary winger Baba Yara and subsequently. They are the most successful club in Ghana with twenty-one Premier League titles against Accra’s Hearts of Oak’s nineteen. The Jackson’s Park ground of the early 1950s was no longer suitable. Kumasi needed a stadium worthy of its status as a centre of sporting excellence and construction started in the 1950s. It also needed a new name that captured both the hopes for future. The new Kumasi Sports Stadium (KSS) became the centre of sporting achievement in Kumasi. Almost half a century and a few face-lifts later it became clear that a modern state of the art stadium was required, but before then a lot of sport graced the old stadium and Ghanaian legends including Tony Yeboah and the great Baba Yara himself had thrilled sports fans there.

The KSS soon proved its worth. Ghana hosted the African Cup of Nations for the first time in 1963. The KSS was relatively new at the time so renovation wasn’t necessary. Fifteen years later the African Cup of Nations returned to Ghana and the KSS again hosted some matches. The government of General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong was in its death throes and Ghana was coached by the disciplinarian Fred Osam Duodu. The veteran coach is currently involved in Ghana’s youth set up. He is one of only two coaches to win the African Cup of Nations for Ghana. Both have been Africans - Ghanaians to be precise. The other - CK Gyamfi - needs no further plaudits as his achievements speak for themselves.

The KSS received renovation in 1978. It became the home of football in Kumasi. Local clubs such as King Faisal: Cornerstones FC, Kumapim Royals and Neoplan Stars used the stadium for league matches. The other team to share the stadium was Asante Kotoko. In 1984 and the following season the Kumasi Sports Stadium witnessed the predatory instincts of the league’s top scorer – Cornerstone’s, Kumasi-born star Tony Yeboah. Kotoko is of course the class of Kumasi, but King Faisal is still a Premier League team. Kotoko had played continental cup ties in the stadium too. The full national team and the Under-17 and Under-20 teams have also played important matches in Kumasi, even though the traditional home for such fixtures had been the Accra Sports Stadium now named the Ohene Djan Stadium after Ghana’s former Director of Sport and Africa’s greatest ever football administrator. Along with Gyamfi and ‘Osagyefo’ Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ohene Djan was an essential pioneer of our football revolution.

In 2000 Ghana co-hosted the African Cup of Nations with Nigeria. Originally the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) awarded the tournament to Zimbabwe. The CAF subsequently revoked that decision as the political and economic situation in that country was not conducive to meeting the needs of Africa’s top football competition. Ghana and Nigeria stepped in at the last minute. It had been twenty-two years since Ghana’s top stadiums had been renovated. The KSS was due another overhaul as was Accra’s, but the last minute change of venue meant that there was not sufficient time to give the stadiums the full overhaul that they needed to meet the requirements of hosting Africa’s most important competition.

However, because the right to host the tournament was taken away from Zimbabwe at short notice there wasn't sufficient time to give the old stadium the full extent of renovation that it needed. This had the unforeseen consequence of affecting the level of athletics in Ghana as the Accra stadium was also undergoing similar renovation. Nevertheless, the inter schools and colleges games which served as a talent hunt for most of Ghana’s top sports personalities was still based in Kumasi at least for schools based in the Asante Region. It was clear that further renovation would soon be required. Ghana disappointed in the African Cup of Nations in 2000, but the wait for improvements and hosting duties would not be long.

The Black Stars returned to the Kumasi Sports Stadium for important World Cup qualification matches on route to Germany and Ghana’s first ever appearance in the finals. Ghana played Uganda in 2005 - the last international match at the Kumasi Sports Stadium. The Asante people gave both the old stadium and the Black Stars a fitting send off. Ghana won 2-0. The old stadium was then pulled down in order to be rebuilt as the state-of-the-art stadium that graced the African Cup of Nations of 2008. During the construction process the Kumasi based teams Asante Kotoko and King Faisal had to play their home matches in alternative stadiums in Sunyani and Obuasi. The smaller capacity of these stadia affected the revenue that the clubs were able to gather. They also lost out as fans had to travel from Kumasi to Sunyani or Obuasi for every match at home. The drain on their resources affected the level of support that those teams could rely on and that in turn affected their performances on the pitch. After the 2008 Nations Cup, the Kumasi based clubs returned home to play in the plush new stadium, but the wait was worthwhile.

The new stadium was named in honour of Baba Yara - one of our best ever players. In his prime his skill was so mesmerising he was said to cause nose-bleeds in defenders unable to keep him in check. Sadly he missed out on what should have been the crowning moment of a great career. CK Gyamfi had no doubts at all about the great skill that Yara possessed. Nobody who knew the shape of a football could. He would have been a star player of the great Black Stars team - one to build the team around. He was that good, but even the great Black Stars side of 1963 had to do without him as a cruel tragedy struck that robbed football of the prodigious talent of Baba Yara.

With good cause Yara was known as the ‘King of the Wingers.’ He was the best in all of West Africa during his too short career. On his day, which was more often than not, he was mesmerising. He single-handedly tore teams apart and he carried that form into the national team s well. Baba Yara’s career was tragically cut short in his prime. On March 24th 1963 Ghana and Yara were robbed of what should have been their mutual destiny. The result of Real Republicans’ match against Volta Heroes is completely irrelevant. Football lost far more than either side could gain on the pitch. While returning from the match there was an accident. Yara was sitting next to the driver with his legs stretched onto the dashboard. The vehicle crashed. Yara’s back was broken - his spinal cord severed. His career was over. He was just twenty-six. Real Republicans: Ghana, Africa and football itself had lost one of the greatest talents our country ever produced. Yara died young as well. All that remains are memories of a truly great player. Sadly we will never know how good he could have become, but nevertheless, he was still an exceptional talent.

His sporting prowess was noticed early and he excelled in many sports when still a child. He was tall even then and was a sprint champion in school. Yara took up riding aged fourteen and still found time to study and play football. As was required at the time to play for Asante Kotoko, Baba Yara was born deep in the heart of Asante territory. He was born and raised a Muslim and broke into Asante Kotoko’s senior side in 1955. Yara was awarded the coveted number seven shirt. That year he was the chief architect in the 7-0 thrashing of Nigeria. More than half a century later this remains the Super-Eagles’ biggest defeat. Another enthralling display in which he had led Hearts of Oak a merry dance led the then renowned sports writer Kofi Badu to say that if Asante Kotoko FC changed their name to Baba Yara FC, many would applaud.

Early in 1960 the great African Director of Sport, Ohene Djan followed ‘Osagyefo’ Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s instructions to organise a new team from all of the best teams in Ghana. The idea was so that the national team would be together for the most part and be able to develop their strategies and abilities together. It fostered team spirit as well, so Real Republicans was born. Players were plundered from Hearts of Oak: Asante Kotoko, Accra’s Great Olympics, Kumasi’s Cornerstone and Cape Coast’s Ebusua Dwarfs, among others. Most players jumped at the opportunity, although Osei Kofi and Wilberforce Mfum stayed with their teams. Yara was one of the players who joined Real Republicans. Kotoko was so enraged at losing his sublime skills that they threatened to pull out of the Ghanaian league in protest. They didn’t follow through and Yara’s career ended with Real Republicans far too soon. He played for the Black Stars fifty-one times and scored forty-nine goals for them - a ridiculously high return for a winger. It is a football tragedy that the accident robbed him of a place in the conquering Black Stars team that went on to triumph under CK Gyamfi later that year and again in 1965. He was and remains one of the greatest players Ghana ever produced. It is entirely fitting that Kumasi’s plush new stadium is named in his honour.

Kumasi once again has a stadium worthy to host the best of Asante football. The Black Stars are welcome here too. They played Libya in Kumasi on June 1st. Claude LeRoy left the Black Stars in May. His assistant Selasse Tetteh was appointed temporarily for the World Cup qualifiers in June. The first was at the Baba Yara Stadium. Ghana comfortably beat Libya 3-0 in front of a vocal and partisan Asante crowd. Kumasi’s and Ghana’s most successful team in domestic competition Asante Kotoko came home as well to great effect too. Since the African Cup of Nations Kotoko remain unbeaten there in both domestic competition and the most prestigious African club competition - the Confédération’s Cup group stage (African Champions’ League), but football is not the only sport to grace the Baba Yara Stadium. Athletics is also held there and the standard of competition is very high. Previously the Kumasi Sports Stadium was the venue for the Mobil Games - the nation’s most prestigious athletics meet. Among the athletes to emerge at this meet is Ignatius Gaisah: Vida Anim and Emmanuel Tuffour. The Mobil Games were eventually discontinued.

However, the Inter-Schools and Colleges games started in their place in Obuasi at the Len Clay Stadium. Athletics is back in vogue as more prestigious meets come to Kumasi. The Ghana Athletics Association held their first major competition in April, 2008 at the Baba Yara Stadium. Although many Europeans and indeed others around the world take such machines for granted electronic timers and other technology were introduced here to great effect. The Inter-Schools and Colleges games have also come home to Kumasi. After the African Cup of Nations they were held in the Baba Yara Stadium for the first time. Of course this affects Sunyani and Obuasi, which no longer host these events. Nevertheless, Ghanaian sport has and is benefiting from the reconstruction of the Baba Yara Stadium and that is set to continue for many years to come