Sunyani (B/A), October 3, GNA - Mr. Fred Osam-Duodu, Technical Director of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has re-emphasized the importance of the Association's idea of the need for a five-year football development plan for the nation. Mr. Osam-Duodu has therefore, appealed to football coaches, referees and administrators to lend their support to the plan, which was officially inaugurated in all the regional capitals throughout the country barely a year ago to succeed.

The Technical Director made these observations at Sunyani when he presented certificates of participation and merit on behalf of the GFA Chairman, Mr Ben Koufie, to 63 participants who took part in a training course on coaching, refereeing and administration of the game at Sunyani on Friday. The certificate-awarding participants comprising 25 Administrators and 19 each for Coaching and Refereeing had only one female participant who was Nana Adwoa Pokuaah, a referee. The participants were graded according to their individual performance and merits and Mr. Kwame Opuni, a Sports Organizer at the Ghana Education Service (GES) based at Kenyasi in the Asutifi District emerged as the only participant in the Coaching course who clocked "Grade A" among the 19.

Three participants also had "Grade A" in Refereeing. They were Mr. Stephen Kwadwo Kyeremeh, Mr. Ampaabeng Kyeremeh and Mr. J.H. Quarshie, while Mr. Duah Kyeremeh Dickson also emerged the only person to gain "Grade A" in the Administration category. In each case the other participants either had "Aggregate B" or "C" Mr. Osam-Duodu noted that the plan was mainly aimed at unearthing talented young footballers from virtually every part of the country to groom them to become future national soccer stars for our national Under-17 and Under-20 soccer teams. He said the grooming of the young players to be tapped would be done first in the district and regional levels on competitive basis before climbing by way of yet a similar pains-taking selection to play a justify-your-inclusion for any of the two junior national teams.

Mr. Osam-Duodu who is also a Coaching Instructor of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and onetime coach of the Senior National team, the Black Stars, said in effect, the five-year development plan had been tailored to serve as a departure from the old system of selection of players for national exercises. The selection lines would be in various groups including those in the districts, regional and national juvenile ones, he said, stressing that, with the idea of the five-year soccer plan the practice whereby selectors sat in Accra to determine players deemed fit to play for the national teams would be a thing of the past. He, therefore, urged the "graduates" of the three groups of sports who matter greatly in the organisation of football to lend their support at wherever they are based to ensure that the plan lived for the purpose it was muted or given birth. He announced that, the plan had taken a good stride at Ho in the Volta Region since its inauguration stressing that, coaches and handlers had included in their talent-hunting exercise women juvenile footballers.

Mr.Osam-Duodu said in every region GFA had appointed some local, popular and energetic old footballers to work as coaches to handle the exercise and mentioned Mr. Kwasi Owusu, popularly known in soccer circle as "Power House" in his hey days, as the Brong-Ahafo Representative Coach for the plan. He appealed to the participants to try as much as possible not to let their personal interest override the main idea of the plan so that at the end of the day development of soccer from the juvenile level in their districts, Brong-Ahafo and in the nation as a whole would come to fruition. He commended the participants some of whom were professional accountants, teachers, prison warders and radio presenters to attend the workshop.

Mr. Num Kofi Dwomoh, Chairman of the Brong-Ahafo Branch of the Regional Football Association (RFA) appealed to the national body of the Association to make available needed infrastructure to make organisation of football possible in the region. Mr. Dwomoh mentioned lack of playing fields; nets for goal posts and other logistics were hindering proper organizational work in the region. He complained that even though the district assembly concept made provision for assemblies to contribute to the development of sports throughout the region, many of the assemblies especially in Brong Ahafo were not abiding by the order.

He, therefore, suggested to the GFA to consider the Region in its budgetary allocation to enhance football organisation at those levels. Mr. Peter B. Bona on behalf of the participants assured that the participants would not rest on our oars but strive to help the region and Ghana to achieve the target for the plan.