WOMEN’S FOOTBALL

This edition of my literary work for the column is devoted to Women’s Football.

Women’s Football has come of age and should occupy an important place in our development agenda for football.

From 28th October, to 11th November 2006 the attention of the continent will concentrate on the African Women’s Football Competition (AWC 2006) in Delta State Nigeria.

Eight finalists of four each in a group are competing for honour in African Women’s Football.

Group A has host Nigeria, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea and Algeria.

Group B is made up of Ghana, Mali, Cameroun, and Congo DR. After an all-play-all group competition the winner and first runner up from each group qualify for the Semi-finals.

The winners from the Semi-finals qualify for the World Cup, China, 2007.

The winners of the final match will be crowned African Women’s Football Queens.

Nigeria has won the AWC since inception. They have even laid a higher claim to the title this time that it is being hosted these.

The Competition is being played in four venues:-
Ogharra, Oghelli, Oleh and Warri. The opening matches produced interesting results.

Nigeria 4 Equatorial Guinea 2
South Africa 3 Algeria 0
Ghana 1 Mali 0
Cameroun 1 Congo DR 1

In Ghana’s opening match, the Black Queens of Ghana played a determined game to beat Mali one-nil.

And continued with a 2-1 victory over Cameroon on Wednesday to book a place in the last four of the competition.


New Ghana sensation

Ghana’s team has quite a number of youthful players who gave early indication that they hold the key to the future of the team.

The new kid on the block is without doubt, 17 year-old Anita Amankwah who plays for Ghatel Ladies Takoradi.

She is a bunch of nerves bubbling with energy, athleticism and youth exuberance.

She played as the lead striker thus seeing her pile a hot of pressure on the opponent’s defence.

But what strikes me most is her regular runs back to tackle in midfield and support the defence to clear balls from danger.

Through it may appear early, yet I think she is the revelation of the team.

She’s already hit a brace for Ghana, scoring both goals against the Indomitable Lionesses.

It is only a pity that she was denied a visa on the team’s training tour of the United States.

Other budding stars in the team include Doreen Awuah, Anita Wiredu Mintah and Rumanatu Tahiru.

Quite apart from these, the established stars in the team gave a very good account of themselves.

Adwoa Bayor, Florence Okoe, Mavis Danso, Yaa Aveh and Olivia Amoako put up quite an outstanding performance.

The match against Mali was the first competitive match for the team the whole year, having qualified to this competition at the expense of Congo Brazaville without kicking a ball.

Against that background the girls were very impressive.

The expectation is that they would improve and correct their mistakes form the first match.

The Black Queens have a target to achieve in this competition.

We want to qualify for the World Cup, China 2007 and win the AWC for the first time.

The young ladies are mindful of this challenge. They are committed to applying their heads, legs and hearts to the accomplishment of this task.

It is as true as day light following darkness that the form that the team is currently showing will not be sustainable unless pragmatic programs are put in place.


Women Football Development

A cardinal principle of this administration is to lift Women’s Football to an enviable level in African and World Football.

We are accordingly committed to the following:-

• Establish a National Women’s League

• Ensure that the National Under-20 Women’s team participates in all International Competitions.

• Establish the National Under-17 National team for Women to participate in the first ever FIFA Competition.

The on-going GFA Business and Development Plan has shown that Ghana abounds with a lot of talent in Women’s Football.

We need to harness and properly manage this human resource to realise our stated objectives and goals.

The prosecution of laudable programs such as the one (3) under discussion will/cannot be implemented without its own challenges.


Financial support for the game

We will need a lot of resources to do this.

We require annual revenues in excess of US$8M to successfully implement our programs.

One project that is targeted as the panacea to most of our development problems is the expansion of facilities at our Technical Centre in Prampram.

We plan to add more residential facilities to the existing one at Prampram. We want to establish national Soccer Academies for U-12, U-15 and U-17 for boys and U-13, U-16 and U-19 for girls.

The Centre will also provide facilities for training of our Coaches, Referees, Administrators and Medical personnel.

When the plan is fully carried out, we will be providing a one-stop solution to all our development problems in the game.

Nigeria has hosted the AWC at least twice in recent years.

As far as I remember Ghana is yet to host this competition.

We last bid for the hosting rights for AWC 2006 which was awarded to Gabon and later Nigeria.

The requirements for hosting the AWC are not exacting and demanding as the Men’s CAN.

You need at least two (2) Stadia where as for the Men’s Competition, you need at least four (4) Stadia.

The Stadium at Ogharra, the venue for the Ghana vrs. Mali match may be a 5,000 capacity, a facility close to the ones we have at El- Wak and the Sunyani Coronation Park.

Hosting Competitions is one surest means of improving sports infrastructure.


Referee Tagoe gets CAF selection

One of our female Referees Mercy Tagoe was selected by CAF to officiate at AWC 2006.

Her appointment should inspire Ghanaman Women in Refereeing to aspire to achieve excellence in their chosen career.

Mercy is one of our best female Referees. She was the 4th Referee in the Ghana vrs Mali match.

I have no doubt that she will justify the confidence reposed in her through the selection by discharging her duties with a high degree of professionalism.

I wish her well at the AWC Warri 2006.


Thank you very much

Cheers!!

November, 2 2006