SWAG Cup Fever Hits Kumasi ... Asante Kotoko promise Asantehene

Oseikrom aka The Garden City of Ghana, Kumasi has been hit with the euphoria of the biggest football match this year in the Ashanti kingdom.

With the royal presence of the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II also to be felt at the Bara Yara Stdium after his majestic visit to the training camp of the Porcupine Warriors, football fans have taken the SIC Nyametei Cup match very serious and preparations by the fans for tomorrow has reached a high stage.

Asante Kotoko coming face to face with AshGold, their regional counterparts at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium is always a sell out as they are rivals.

So the theme of the match "Payin de Payin" is the right description of the invitational Cup sponsored by State Insurance Company (SIC) is in honour of H.P Nyametei who was the first Ghanaian to be appointed as the CEO of the institution as well as a former Hearts of Oak and GFA chairman.

Asante Kotoko is the top club in the history of the Cup competition which started in 1972, with 12 titles are expected to play their hearts out to avenge the Otumfuo Cup defeat they suffered in the hands of Ashanti Gold, who have won the SWAG Cup on 5 occasions.

David Duncan, coach of Kotoko will rely on the magic of his new players including Samuel Sekyere, Ernest Sowah, Edwin Frimpong and Benedict Ofori.

The Obuasi Miners who have lost key defender Lawrence Lartey, now plying his trade in South Africa have a wonderful all round team and their attacking minded midfielder Didier Kore who can create and shoot.

Coach Bashiru Hayford is expected to feature the likes of Eric Opoku, who was last season's Ghana Premier League best player, Kadiru Mohammed.

The supporters of Asante Kotoko have cautioned their players not to fail and win the SWAG Cup to compensate them as they have not won any trophy this season.

Obuasi AshGold who won the League also want to make a clean sweep of all titles that they come into contact with.

All roads lead to the Baba Yara Sports Stadium for the big game, with moderate rates starting from only 3ghc.

The SWAG Cup has not been played for the past five years and the members and executives of the Sports Media Fraternity want to make the revival a memorable one. SIC Insurance Company came to the aid of the Association with 80,000ghc as sponsorship for this year's SIC Nyemitei SWAG Cup match in Kumasi