Sports News of Tuesday, 22 May 2018

Source: ghanasoccernet.com

Wilfred Palmer targets top 20 World Ranking for Black Stars

Wilfred Osei Palmer Wilfred Osei Palmer

The new Black Stars Management Committee chairman, Wilfred Osei Palmer has set his sights on leading the Black Stars into the top 20 of the FIFA World Ranking in the next two years.

Ghana moved up three places to 51st position in the Coca-Cola FIFA Ranking for the month of April.

The Black Stars had occupied the 54th position in the March rankings, but gained 602 points to tie with Cameroon in 51st position.

The Black Stars, despite not playing a friendly game in March, moved up to 7th on the continent, behind Tunisia, Senegal, DR Congo, Morocco, Egypt, and Nigeria who occupy the top 7 spots.

But Osei Palmer, who was appointed into the role mid-last month, has underlined his ambition to help improve the nation's position on the ranking in the next two years.

"The main target of the new Black Stars Management Committee is to make the Black Stars a top twenty (20) side on the FIFA rankings in 2 years", he said.

Palmer who is also the owner of Tema Youth made this revelation this afternoon when he was being interviewed on Atinka FM ahead of the two friendly games lined up for the Senior Soccer National Team.

Ghana Blacks Stars, even though will not be featuring in the upcoming world cup in Russia, will be playing in Japan and Iceland in international friendlies as part of preparations and grooming of players for AFCON 2019.

The four-time Africa champions will play the Japan National team on the 30th of May and then face Iceland on the 6th of June.

Wilfred Osei Palmer also disclosed that as plans for the new management’s efforts to ensure they achieve their set target, they are putting measures in place that will aid them to accomplish their goal.

“The technical team are going to come up with what we call technical strategy and we the management are also going to present our strategic planning to the ministry of youth and sports for the next 2 years”, he said.

Palmer who also emphasized that he was not expecting to be named as the chairman of the Black Stars Management Committee, added that for the upcoming friendly matches the stars will be playing, they are yet to decide on how much each player will be given.

"We are deliberating on how much the players will be taken for the two friendly matches".