Ghana’s preparations for the World Youth Championships in Egypt suffered another crushing blow after the team were denied Swiss entry visas for two friendly games against the United Arab Emirates in Switzerland.

Players and officials of the team spent much of Tuesday at the Swiss embassy in Accra trying to secure entry requirement for the match but were told in no uncertain terms that they could only be granted entry visas in a month’s time.

The U-20s were scheduled to play the UAE on Sunday and then next Wednesday in two games that Sellas Tetteh was hoping will give him the chance to train for the first time with the full complement of the team that won the Africa Youth Championships in January this year.

Instead Tetteh was left to train with a core of the home based players on Wednesday morning.

It is another setback for the team who have looked disorganised for much of the period since returning from Rwanda with the trophy. One training tour or match after the other has been cancelled and when they have played, they have been played off the pitch a lot of the time by opponents.

Ghana is grouped with England, Uzbekistan and Uruguay for the FIFA Youth Championships which begins in September.