Soccer News of Saturday, 25 May 2002

Source: GNA

New Black Stars Coach To Arrive In June

The new Black Stars coach, Millan Zivadinovic, is expected to arrive from his Yugoslav base on June 2 to finalise contractual agreement with officials of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and possibly assume full responsibility as helmsman of the team.

Officials of the GFA have sent copies of his contract document to him for study, a source at the GFA Secretariat told the GNA Sports in Accra on Thursday.

The source said the GFA boss, Ben Koufie, delivered the contractual documents to the coach himself during the Ghana-Slovania match where Mr Koufie was able to reach a compromise with him over certain issues pertaining to his condition of service.

The GFA is offering 8,000 dollars a month and a signing on fee of 10,000 dollars, which many connoisseurs believe is rather low on the "market". The coach is also entitled to other unnamed benefits which have been incorporated in the two-year renewable contract.

Zivadinovic's arrival is likely to coincide with that of the GFA boss, Ben Koufie, and his General Secretary, Kofi Nsiah, who are scheduled to arrive from the FIFA congress in Japan on June 2.

Coach Zivadinovic was chosen after three foreign coaches were short-listed, including current Kotoko Scotish coach Ian Porterfield.

He is the second expatriate coach in two years after the reigns of Italian Giussepe Dossena. Zivadinovic has had stints with the national teams of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and his home country, Yugoslavia.