Former Vice President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), George Afriyie has explained why African countries struggle at the World Cup.
Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia and Cameroon are the five African countries set to represent the continent at the mundial next month.
Deliberating on how the Black Stars and the other African representatives would have to punch above their weight in Qatar as no African nation has made it past the last eight of the World Cup, the Former GFA Vice President George Afriyie was of the opinion African countries do not understand the value of the mundial.
“The premium other countries put on the World Cup is not the same when it comes to us the African countries.
“In Ghana for instance, whenever we are heading to such tournaments, we hear people complaining about the amounts we are going to invest and all just because we do not know the value of it.
“We as Africans, restricting it to West Africans especially, do not understand the value of the World Cup because if we understood the value, we would invest and prepare well towards the World Cup”. He said on Happy FM’s Sports Dialogue.
“Ghana is expected to play Portugal, South Korea and Uruguay. Can we compare our cost of preparations to the cost of these countries? Of course we cannot” he added.
African’s representatives, The African Champions will evolve in group A. Senegal will face hosts, Qatar, the Netherlands and Ecuador.
In Group D, Tunisia will be playing against defending champions, France and Denmark plus Australia. In Group F, Morocco faces battle against Canada, Belgium and Croatia.
Cameroon will face record holders Brazil in Group G as well as Switzerland and Serbia.
Ghana will face familiar opposition in the Uruguayans, Portugal and South Korea in Group H.