Ghana players urged to focus and leave women

Former Minister of Sports in Ghana Elvis Afriyie Ankrah has cautioned the Ghana national team players against entertaining women during the 2022 World Cup.

The Black Stars of Ghana are one of the five African representatives in Qatar. They are in Group H alongside Portugal, Uruguay and South Korea.

But Ankrah believes wives and girlfriends can be a distraction for players. He says players should avoid taking along their partners to the tournament in order to have their eyes on glory.

“The team must be focused and dedicated for the World Cup period,” the 55-year-old tells Ghana News Agency.

GHANA PLAYERS SHOULD FOCUS

“This is a tournament for just a few weeks. The players should leave their wives and girlfriends for those few weeks. They should focus on bringing glory to Ghana and themselves.

“It is a privilege to don the national colours, and players should not think they are doing us a favour by representing Ghana.”

The Black Stars qualified for the World Cup after beating Nigeria in a two-legged playoff on away goals.

Coach Otto Addo has yet to name his preliminary squad for the tournament. They are set to play a friendly match against Switzerland, which will be the final match before the team departs for Qatar.

GHANA WORLD CUP HISTORY

The Black Stars have qualified for three FIFA World Cup tournaments; 2006, 2010, 2014 and now 2022.

In 2006, they were the only African side to advance to the second round of the World Cup in Germany and were the sixth nation in a row from Africa to progress beyond the group stages of the World Cup.

Their best World Cup performance was reaching the quarterfinals of the 2010 World Cup hosted in South Africa.