Accra, May 11, GNA - The Ghana Football Association (GFA) on Wednesday defended the rescheduling of the training camp of the Black Stars from Kenya to Kumasi, ahead of their World Cup qualifier against Burkina Faso as feasible alternative.
The change of the venue to prepare for the June 5, duel scheduled for the Baba Yara Stadium was not due to lack of funds, it explained. The Stars' Coach Ratomir Djukovic was quoted as saying in a radio interview that the reschedule was due to non-availability of funds. But the GFA told the GNA Sports in Accra that the coach agreed to the reasons for the change of training venue.
"Perhaps because of communication problems, he was unable to explain the issue to the media", Kofi Nsiah, General Secretary of the GFA said. Chiefly among the reasons for the rescheduled was that most of the invited players were Europe-based and would be wrapping up their league matches by May 30, and it was therefore not realistic for the players to join their seven local colleagues in Kenya, train with them and fly back to Ghana before June 5.
Alternatively, the Ministry of Education and Sports has suggested that if pitching the training camp in a foreign land was necessary then any of the neighbouring countries should be ideal.
Sequel to its proposals, the ministry is liasing with the national security if it was safe for the team to move to Benin for the fine-tuning exercise.
Ministry sources told the GNA Sports that plans were afoot for the team to move to Kenya before their crunch encounter with South Africa to acclimatize since Kenya and South Africa have the same altitude. Coach Djukovic on Monday invited 25 players dominated by the foreign legions to begin camping in Kumasi.