The Member of Parliament for the North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has expressed regret in the fact that there is no standard FIFA football pitch in Ghana.
The politician of the opposition National Democratic Congress is saying this on the back of the Minister of Youth and Sports Mustapha Ussif confirming to Parliament that his outfit intended to spend 8.5 million dollars at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
"Mr Speaker, the document the Sports Ministry submitted to this house, if you look at what we spent on qualifiers, Ghana v Angola home and away amounted to Ghc7.4m and Ghana v Madagascar also amounted to Ghc13.2m. The airlifting of supporters from Ghana to Qatar was Ghc5.3m. We are throwing hundreds of millions into supporting this Black Stars and we are still not getting results,” Ablakwa said in Parliament.
"Look at the state of our pitches. We don't even have a single FIFA standard pitch. Youth development is gone. The local league is gone," he added.
Ghana missed out on a place in the Round of 16 after finishing third in a group consisting of Cape Verde, Egypt and Mozambique.
The Black Stars lost 2-1 to Cape Verde before back to back 2-2 draws against Egypt and Mozambique confirmed Ghana’s elimination from the tournament.
The Black Stars, for the second successive tournament, exited at the group stages without registering a win, extending the country's wait for its fifth AFCON title to 42 years.