The Ghana Football Association (GFA) and the Ministry of Youth and Sports will need to resolve whatever differences exist between them before Black Stars begin their quest for a fourth straight World Cup appearance, King Faisal Football Club founder and bankroller Alhaji Karim Gruzah has advised.
Relations between Sports Minister Edwin Nii Lantey Vanderpuye and the GFA have been strained after Mr Vanderpuye said his Ministry could not foot the airfares of foreign-based players invited for the country’s last Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Rwanda in Accra .
The invited players self-funded their travel back home to honour Saturday’s encounter, which ended 1-1, a result which was insignificant given Ghana had already qualified for the finals to be held in Gabon in 2017.
But with the World Cup qualifiers on the horizon, Alhaji Gruzah has urged unity and focus before the matches begin.
According to him, in football – as in any other activity – “dedication, determination, and discipline” were crucial to success and the two bodies would need to patch up in order not to see the bad blood between them impact the chances of the Black Stars who are billed to play the first game of their qualifiers in October.
“If we go into (the World Cup) qualifiers with such attitude, things won’t bode well for us,” he told Chief Jerry Forson on Accra100.5FM’s morning show, Ghana Yensom, on Monday September 5.
“If things will succeed, there first has to be unity.”
The Black Stars have been drawn in the same group with Egypt, Uganda and Congo for the Russia 2018 qualifiers and will need to top the group to make it to the Mundial.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com/100.5FM
