Accra, Feb 7, GNA - The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has initiated a process to recruit a competent technical director with the responsibility of setting up a technical directorate. The lack of a functioning technical directorate at the FA to control the general course of the game in the country has been identified as one of the major causes of the Stars abysmal performance during the on-going African Cup of Nations in Egypt.

Mr Kwasi Nyantakyi, President of the Ghana Football Association said the constitution of the directorate is therefore to forestall the repletion of such abysmal performance in next summer's World Cup where the Stars will be making their maiden appearance, The FA President said the technical directorate would be in charge of the technical direction of matters concerning football in Ghana whilst the administrators are left to concentrate on their core duties. He said when the directorate becomes fully operational they will see to it that all Ghanaian national teams from the Black Stars to the Starlets play to a standard and would act as an advisory body to all coaches including that of the women's national team.

Mr Nyantakyi said the directorate in addition to advising the coaches on the technical aspect would also be charged to monitor the tactics of Ghana's opponents in next summers World Cup to advice the coach.

He said the other terms of reference of the directorate would also see them working hand in hand with the national coach in monitoring Ghanaian players in the various European leagues to ensure that, henceforth players called up into the team will be in the best of shape so as to prevent what happened in Egypt never happens again. Mr Nyantakyi said the directorate would also be in charge of the standard of play in the league by liaising with all the coaches of the GT Premier League and organise training courses to ensure the standard of the league improves.

"The same facility would be extended to the First, Second and youth football clubs as well"

The senior national team, the Black Stars recently crushed out of the on-going African Cup of Nations in the group stage after losing two of their three matches to Nigeria and Zimbabwe. In the wake of the shock exit of the Stars, many have accused the coach of just selecting his favourites without recourse to their form, hence the team was bereft of many quality players who would have performed better than some of the players selected for the tournament.