The Confederation of African Amputee Football (CAAF) has given the African Paralympic Committee (APC) the green light to include amputee football and three other sports disciplines at the African Paralympic Games to be hosted in Ghana.
This follows a recent visit by CAAF, to inspect facilities and assess the country’s readiness for the games.
The other disciplines which were cleared for inclusion were wheelchair basketball, sitting volleyball and wheelchair tennis.
In a letter dated July 12 and signed by CAAF President, Leonel Pinto, however, stated “the IPC Sports World Para Athletics and World Para Powerlifting have cancelled their participation due to the failure of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) to confirm the technical requirements for these sports.”
Consequently, only four of the seven initially scheduled for the Games had been cleared for the September 2-13 event.
“The organiser has agreed to accept 10 teams in amputee football with the possibility of increasing to 12 teams. The tournament will be organised as a World Amputee Football Federation (WAFF) as its sanctioned tournament and only WAFF members in good standing will be eligible,” it stated.
Hence, countries currently in good standing including Ghana, Liberia, Angola, Cameroon, Tanzania, Morocco, Egypt, Gambia and Nigeria would be participating in the event.
Currently, nine countries based on the ranking of the last African Amputee Football Cup would be eligible to compete in the event.
“If Kenya or Sierra Leone were to pay their outstanding WAFF membership fee by Friday, July 21, they would be placed on the list, according to the African World Cup ranking and would have up to 11 countries,” it stated.
The APC, organisers of the event, following the approval, had since initiated steps to get the teams ready for the continental event.
In Ghana, the Amputee Football Normalisation Committee had been set to oversee the country’s participation in the Games.
BY MICHAEL D. ABAYATEYE
