Communications Director of the Ghana Football Association, Henry Asante Twum has opposed claims that Ghana football is retrogressing as he enumerates the success chalked under Kurt Okraku’s administration.
Asante Twum insists football in the West Africa country is alive considering the performance of Dreams FC, and other national teams in recent competitions.
“Whatever situation we found ourselves in begun many years ago. It’s been years since a Ghanaian club reached the semifinals in Africa. Hearts of Oak and Kotoko played in the finals of the Confederation Cup back in 2004 and after 20-years, Dreams FC are in semifinals. So how does the issue of decline only come in within the last four years?”
“And if it’s just last four years, there are a lot of positives to talk about. Within the last four years, Dreams FC are in the semifinals of the Confederation Cup. We’ve won the U20 AFCON in Mauritania after last winning it in 2009. We also qualified for the FIFA U20 World Cup. We’ve also qualified for the Women U20 World Cup twice, the Black Queens has secured qualification to the Women’s AFCON after exiting at group stage in 2018”
“We were also far behind in Futsal games but under this current administration we are making strides. The last time the Futsal national team qualified for AFCON was in 1996, but this time, they have qualified and are set to compete in the Futsal AFCON in Morocco”
“I agree that there are challenges especially if you are talking about competition by competition. In 2018, the Black Stars missed out in the World Cup but in 2022, we qualified although we exited at group stage but if FIFA has over 150 members and we are able to made 32 cut for the World Cup, I think it’s an honour’
“If it is about competition specifics, challenges and issues that people have identified, I don’t have a problem. You can talk about infrastructure, quality of play, standard of coaching, officiating, coverage of games and others but when you are situating the argument in its proper perspective, you need to look at all these and make proper argument. If you combined all these and claim Ghana football is retrogressing then you are not being fair” he added.