Executive Committee Member of the Ghana Football Association, Wilfred Osei Palmer has frowned on the pronouncement by Sports Minister Nii Lante Vanderpuiye that due to lack of funds Coach Avram Grant should only call-up players on the local scene or the African continent.
Reports have intensified in the media in regard to the assertion by Sports Ministry that due to handicap in capital, they cannot afford air tickets to the invited foreign based players and therefore, Head Coach of the Black Stars, Avram Grant should reassess his selection by inviting locally based player or players plying their trade on the African continent.
However, Wilfred Palmer has expressed displeasure at the move by the Ministry and warned that this could have a long term effect on the senior national football team in future.
He said on Happy FM’s Anopa Bosuo sports,”I think it will be out of place if the players that have contributed to the team up until this time to be sidelined in this last qualifying game for someone else to come and finish the job. If that is case then, I’m invited next time to play in an important match, I’ll deliberately play bad.”
If someone has played in a competition to the level that we don’t need to win the last game to book our qualification because we’ve already qualified, why would you say that because we’ve qualified I’m longer interested in using you, would that be a sound argument?, would that not be the fact that I’ll only need you on board when I feel I need your service?” Palmer quizzed.
“After the team has qualified, you have lined up two friendly games before the tournament, and you in between that game, you are playing two World Cup qualifiers against Uganda and Egypt before you embarks on the tournament itself. Are you implying that we use another set of players for the friendly assignment and when it gets to the World Cup qualifiers you field the main players you want to take to the AFCON tournament.”
“And therefore, when a coach presents his list of players and tells you that these are the players I intend to use, does the Ministry expect we the management team to question the coach’s selection and tell him that because we’ve qualified we want you to invite this or that player and the coach also tells you he can’t, what do think will be the position. Do you think this will auger well for the development of football in Ghana if we are at a stand still because of disagreement between the coach and management? I don’t think so.”