Black Stars caretaker coach, Fred Osam Duodu, has outlined a training programme, which includes 17 international friendly matches to prepare his boys for next January's Africa Cup of Nations in Mali.

Three of the matches are scheduled for November, nine for December and five in January.

Coach Osam Duodu told the GNA Sports in an interview that with the review of the second round league matches where six mid-week pairings have been scrapped, he is optimistic that he would have the much-needed time to prepare the team adequately before the month-long tournament.

He said his earlier programme, which was formulated to take care of the GFA's earlier decision that not more than two players would be picked from a club to the Black Stars has been nullified.

The idea, he said, was proposed by Mr Ben Koufie, Chairman of the Ghana

Football Association (GFA) to forestall any future postponement of the league.

The GFA regulations state that if up to three or more players are selected from a club, the team's match should be declared outstanding.

According to the coach, most of the friendly matches will be played in November and December to help the team peak at the appropriate time for the tournament.

The coach said so far, only the match against the Pharaohs of Egypt on January 4 2002 has been confirmed. He was however confident that others would be confirmed before the winter break of the leagues in Europe.

According to the programme, the team would be assembling on Mondays at the Winneba Sports Colleges when there are no mid-week matches and the players would be released on Fridays to play for their clubs on Sundays.

He said the Black Stars would play Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda in the first part of their preparations before tackling their West African neighbours Togo, Benin, Cote D'Ivoire and Senegal in the second phase.

The team would camp in Burkina Faso, to acclimatise for eight days before emplaning to Mali for the competition, which starts on January 19.

He told the GNA that an overseas company, Seabreeze Ventures, which he has contracted to monitor Ghanaian players in Europe, is arranging some international friendlies for the Stars.