By: Bright Ntramah
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has asked the Ghana Football Association (GFA) not to influence the selection of players who will be chosen to play for the country during the World Cup but to leave that solely to the technical team.
He urged the GFA, the Sports Ministry and all other stakeholders including the political class, to desist from interfering in any shape or form, on the subject matter of player selection.
“We have confidence in the people you have chosen. You have got a very good team, such as Ato Addo, Chris Hughton, George Boateng and Richard Kingston. I think we have got a very good set of people to guide our players. We should leave them and their professional judgment, [to determine] who are the best combinations for us” the President said.
He called on Ghanaians to rally behind the senior national team, the Ghana Black Stars, during their world cup campaign in Qatar, which starts next month.. He made the appeal when he received the leadership of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) at his office in the Jubilee House.
The officials of the GFA where at the Jubilee House to present to the President, the home and away jerseys the Black Stars will be wearing during their World Cup campaign.
The ‘Home’ jersey is white and the ‘Away’ jersey is red in colour.
“The important thing is that as a nation, we give maximum support to our young people to go and give of their best. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and cheer them [the Black Stars] on” the President said.
President of the Ghana Football Association, Kurt Okraku, before presenting the official Black Stars jerseys to President Akufo-Addo, said the Black Stars will commence their Qatar 2022 journey with a short trip to a “trainings camp” in Abu Dhabi on 10th November, 2022.
“We expect the last batch of the playing body and technical team to arrive on the (14 November) which is the deadline given by all clubs in the world to release the players” Okraku said.
“On the (17 November) we will play a friendly match against Switzerland in Abu Dhabi and on 18th November, we will depart finally to tournament country or city, Doha” he added.
