Coach Akwasi Appiah is claiming full exclusivity and responsibility for his provisional Black Stars squad – insisting no player was imposed on him by any Ghana FA official.

The ex Ghana international on Thursday announced a 26-man squad for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations to be staged in South Africa.

The team will travel to Abu Dhabi early January to step up preparations where three players will be dropped from the provisional squad in order to arrive at the required 23 players for the competition.

There are however widespread speculations that coach Appiah is being dictated to in his player selections by top ranked Ghana FA officials following the exclusion of some expected players.

Jordan Ayew, David Addy and Abdul Majeed Waris were the notables left out of the side – further fuelling this perception.

But the 52-year-old has strongly rejected this school of thought – saying his latest squad was compiled exclusively by himself with the help of his back room staff.

“I have been in football for a long time so I don’t know why the President should ask me to put a player in the squad,” he said.

“At the end of the day I am the one to take ultimate responsibility so I can say it was me and my technical staff that compiled this squad.”

The team will start non residential camping early January in Accra before traveling to Abu Dhabi to step up preparations.

Three players will then be axed from the side to make the final squad for the tournament that kicks off on January 19.

Ghana opens its Nations Cup account a day after with Group B’s opening game at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium against DR Congo.