Sports News of Monday, 22 March 2021

Source: ghanaguardian.com

Ghana Beàch Soccer in a fix as Yaw Ampofo demands answers from GFA

Founder and former President of the Ghana Beach Soccer Association, Yaw Ampofo Ankrah Founder and former President of the Ghana Beach Soccer Association, Yaw Ampofo Ankrah

The Founder and former President of the Ghana Beach Soccer Association has condemned the Ghana Football Association for the reckless manner in which they withdrew the national team Black Sharks from the Afcon 2021 qualifiers.

In a direct and strongly worded letter to the GFA President, the sports Journalist turned administrator, minced no words in revealing the manner in which the General Secretary of the GFA instructed the National Teams Chairman to write a withdrawal letter to CAF without consultations with the Beach Soccer Committees.

It would be recalled that during the Normalization period of Ghana football, the Chairman Dr Kofi Amoah was presented with a blueprint for the 5-year development template of the sand sport which needed the muscle and power of FIFA and CAF.

This informed the Ghana Beach Soccer Association to put in a formal bid to be accepted fully by the GFA in order to access protocols and facilities for the benefit of the sport.

The process was endorsed and approved at Congress by the GFA and a new path was set out after the historic elections victory of Kurt Okraku.

However, after a year of "no show" by the GFA, this latest development brings into focus the potential pitfalls of the new arrangement and status of Ghana Beach Soccer within the GFA structures and whether or not the sand sport is even a priority for the Okraku administration.

"The reasons being bandied around is that there's no money but I'm aware parts of the COVID-19 relief fund is meant for Beach Soccer, so I want to ask where our share. I'm really not impressed with the latest development but I'll continue to work with the FA to find a solution but it's really in a bad taste that we were not informed of the decision to withdraw from the AFCON qualifiers"