Soccer News of Monday, 22 June 2009

Source: soccernet

Ghana to camp in Namibia ahead of 2010 World Cup

Ghana are likely to camp in NamibiaThe Ghana Football Association are on the verge of reaching a deal to camp in Namibia ahead of next year’s World Cup in South Africa.

The president of the Namibian Football Association (NFA) John Muinjo, says the prospects of hosting Ghana look fairly good.

The Black Stars are heavily fancied to qualify for the tournament from Group D of the qualifiers and camping base in Southern Africa would be key to success at the competition.

Some of the countries on the verge of qualification for the global showpiece have expressed their desire to put up camp in Namibia with Ghana as one.

A three-member NFA delegation led by Muinjo, attended the 59th Annual FIFA Congress in the Bahamas two weeks ago, where they met with Ghana FA officials to explore the possibility.

“So far, we managed to have an audience with Australia, Japan, South Korea, Holland, Denmark, England, Ghana and Cote d’ Ivoire,” Muinjo said.

“Some of their representatives have indicated that they will be sending out delegates to the Southern African region including Namibia on a fact-finding mission.

“In the meantime, we will remain in constant contact with them and others as the final qualifications unfold.”

It is also envisaged that as a result of the cooperation agreement that NFA has signed with the South African Football Association (SAFA), Namibia could benefit immensely by playing friendly matches against those countries that will engage “Bafana Bafana” in warm-up games prior to the kick-off of the World Cup finals.

“Some countries are having sizeable supporters and have so far have sold 94 000 tickets and wanted to know whether Namibia could handle the influx of so many visitors,” Muinjo added.

It is a well-documented fact that properly prepared countries bordering the host nation normally benefits economically from events of such magnitude with the inhabitants through their government and other stakeholders the chief beneficiaries of such ventures and comparative advantages.