Sports News of Friday, 28 January 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-01-28Did GFA, Sports Ministry prioritize World Cup over AFCON?
Minister for Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif and GFA President, Kurt Okraku
Clarifications by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Yussif on why the Black Stars camped in Qatar as part of their preparations for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations raises more questions than the ever was.
The FA flew the team to Qatar on Friday, 24 December 2021, to begin their preparations for the 33rd edition of
Read full articlethe Africa Cup of Nations which ended woefully as they were eliminated from the group stages.
Mustapha Yussif seemed to have opened the Pandora's box about the Black Stars preparations on the floor of Parliament during the debate on Ghana’s performance in the ongoing AFCON.
The Minister’s response on why they camped the team in the middle east seemed to suggest that the Ghana Football Association didn’t prioritized the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations contrary to the earlier communication that coach Milovan Rajevac had been tasked to win the tournament.
When asked on the floor of Parliament on why Ghana camped in Qatar, Mustapha Yussif said “The Ministry agreed with the GFA to camp in Qatar because Ghana has the opportunity to qualify to the World Cup and now we are going to play Nigeria in the last phase of the qualifiers. If we get the opportunity to qualify, its only important the players acclimatize.”
This explanation from the Minster have been interpreted as prioritizing the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar over the Africa Cup of Nations.
One would wonder the rational behind the prioritization of the FIFA World Cup that Ghana is not guaranteed a qualification over the AFCON that the country qualified and had a chance of winning?
That’s the question on the minds of most Ghanaians and if Ghana should fail to beat the Super Eagles of Nigeria in play off stage to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in November, then there would be more questions to answer.
