9/10/2024
Ahead of Sudan doubleheader, President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kurt Edwin Simon-Okraku, has vented his anger on Black Stars players for running a winless 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier campaign.
The Stars who could have secured a possible six point after locking horns with Angola and Niger, ended up with just a point having lost and drawn in their opener games against the two teams respectively.
In an attempt to avert the recurrence of such abysmal performance, Kurt visited the Black Stars camp on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, and charged them to perform or risk losing their future call-up to the team.
“It is either you are with this family or you are out of this family,” the FA President said.
‘It is simple and because me, I swear by my life, if you are out of this family, Ghana will never be represented by ten men, never, it will be 11 on the pitch.
“Somebody played before you, it is time for you to play and somebody will also play after you. In your time, if you don’t grab the opportunity, somebody is looking for the opportunity to play,” he added.
Ghana sits third in Group F, slip six places in the latest FIFA World Rankings (from 64th to 70th), and dropped two places in the continental ranking (currently occupying 14th place).
The poor performance of the Stars in the two opener games brought the team under heavy criticism and Kurt is obviously unhappy just like other Ghanaian football fans.
“The minimum I expect, the minimum Ghana expects is a team of boys or men who will show passion and desire to play for our country. Not when you are dribbled and you will be seen walking on the pitch and the ball is heading towards your net. That is impossible, I told the coach,” he emphasised.
“Once you depart your various places and you come here and put on the shirt, naturally, that should give you the pride to fight, to show passion, to show aggression [and] to show desire to win,” he concluded.
On Thursday, October 10, 2024, the Black Stars will face Sudan at the Accra Sports Stadium on matchday three before travelling to Libya for the return leg on Tuesday, October 15, seeking to pick up maximum points in their doubleheader.
By: Maxwell Woyram Tsigbe