Black Stars B head coach Maxwell Konadu has appealed to the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS) to expedite the process of securing a venue for the team to begin camping as they look to prepare for next year’s African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifier against Burkina Faso next month.
Coach Konadu is to prepare the team for the 2019 WAFU tournament in Senegal, which is preceded by CHAN qualifier first leg against Burkina Faso on September 20 in Ghana before traveling to Ouagadougou for the second leg in October. With barely seven weeks to the WAFU tournament where the Black Stars B are scheduled to play against Gambia on September 28, the team has been kept waiting for camping date and venue while the ministry looks to settle on a befitting venue for the camping. Maxwell Konadu announced a 28-man squad on Wednesday pending camping and has been appealing to authorities to speed up the process to enable him prepare the team well for the double header.
“We’ve named the squad so we are waiting for authorities to give us the green light so we will call the players for us to start training”, Maxwell told Fox FM on Focal Sports.
“Time is going against us a bit so we will, through this medium (Fox FM), appeal to authorities to immediately give us venue or where we’ll meet for the camping to enable us move to camp so we can prepare well”, he appealed.
Significantly, Ghana has won the last two WAFU tournaments and, as defending champions, stand a chance of winning the trophy for keep if they lift the trophy in Senegal next month. Ghana must intensify preparations if they want to defend the trophy which they last won in 2017 as hosts where they trounced rivals Nigeria 4-1 in the final at the Cape Coast sports stadium.
“We are the defending champions, we’ve won the WAFU twice, it’s (now) the third time and if we win, we win it for keep so if we go to camp early and prepare early and prepare well it will help us all to be able to go and make Ghana proud in Senegal”, he noted.
The ministry has asked the selected players for the tournament “to hold themselves ready as details of commencement date for camping and venue will be communicated in due course”.
