The Ghana Football Association on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, launched the Juvenile football season at the headquarters in Accra.
The programme attracted followers of the game and ambassadors of juvenile football including former Ghanaian International Laryea Kingston.
President of the Ghana Football Association Kurt Edwin Simeon-Okraku who doubles as Chairman of the Juvenile Committee led the entire event with support from Executive Council members, Dr. Randy Abbey, Samuel Anim Addo – Vice Chairman of the Juvenile Committee, and Technical Director Bernhard Lippert.
Deputy Head of Mission for the Spanish Embassy in Accra – Mr. Rafael Rodriguez Ponga Albala was the special guest.
In attendance were Prosper Harrison Addo (Esq.), General Secretary of the Ghana Football Association, Dr. Kwame Baah – Nuako, Chairman of the Club Licensing Board, Members of the Juvenile Committee, Chairman of the Greater Accra Regional Football Association Samuel Aboabire and Alhaji Abu-Hassan Mahamadu, Chairman of the Northern Regional Association.
The gathering observed a minute silence for the six kids who lost their lives in the Offinso accident in September 2020.
The GFA intends to use the season to identify budding talents to mark the start of a long-term development project that would benefit the various national teams.
The Ghana Football Association has mentioned that penalty shoot-outs will be used to decide the winners of matches that end in a draw in the novel Juvenile League.
This was made known by President Kurt E.S Okraku on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 during the Launch of the 2021 Juvenile football season at the headquarters in Accra.
President Simeon-Okraku explained that the format is to help young footballers perfect their skills in the area of penalty shoot-outs.
Ghana have in recent years failed to win on penalty shoot outs in two Africa Cup of Nations finals – in Senegal in 1992 and Equatorial Guinea in 2015.
Other national teams have suffered a similar faith during penalty shoot-outs.
The GFA believes the introduction of the new format will help young players to learn the skills from this stage until they are fully matured for the International football.
“For so many years, Ghana has suffered a lot from our inability to score at the penalty spot when games end in stalemates. The Black Stars we remember Senegal 92 (which is) just one of the key examples,” President Simeon-Okraku said.
“So beginning this season, all juvenile games that end in stalemates will be decided via penalty shootouts. So what that means is that when the game ends in 0-0, 1-1 or 3-3 we’ll resort to the penalty shootout to decide the winner.
“The winner gets 2 points while the losing team gets one,” he added.
The 2020/21 Juvenile football League will commence on the weekend of May, 7/8/9 2021.
CREDIT; GFA MEDIA
