Black Starlets coach Ben Fokuo is confident his outfit will book a slot to the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations next year.
The team is preparing for the WAFU Zone B U-17 Cup of Nations, which is a qualifying competition for Africa’s juvenile tournament.
Ghana, two-time champions failed to qualify for the competition last year in Tanzania, putting pressure on the current squad to make an appearance at next year’s tournament.
Speaking in an interview the coach insisted that the Coronavirus pandemic affected his plans which led to him breaking camp in March.
“It has affected us a lot because we started camping around February, which we were having about 5 months to prepare since the competition would have been in July. The pandemic has affected us a lot because now we have about a month to prepare the team and so things we need to go through when you have enough time to prepare the team for a competition has been reduced to less than two months of preparation. The players have been screened, picked and camping had started already, so, things that have to be done in five months have to be done in less than two months so we need to speed up to be well prepared before we leave.”
However the tactian has assured Ghanaians that they will secure qualification to Morocco 2021.
“Yes, I can assure you that the materials I have now, I think despite we, having a short period to train and prepare for the tournament, I’m assuring Ghanaians to support us and bring that love back because they’ll see a new U-17 team and nobody will disgrace them at the tournament. They’ll be happy and they’ll see us there in future competitions.”
Ben Fokuo has invited forty (40) players in a provisional squad to resume camping on Tuesday, September 15 to prepare for the 2020 WAFU Zone B Cup of Nations, slated for Benin from October 17-31, 2020.
