The Ghana Football Association (GFA) President, Mr Kurt Edwin Simeon Okraku says Ghana stands to make a lot gains if the Elite Talent Identification Programme is judiciously followed and implemented.
He was speaking at the launch of the Programme on Wednesday.
The Elite Talent Identification Programme is a comprehensive blueprint that seeks to drive the talent identification agenda of the GFA across the various districts and regions of Ghana.
These talents would be selected from the communities, districts and regions of Ghana to form the base of the U-15 male and female national teams after which successful talents will progress to the Black Starlets and later to the Black Stars level.
‘’If we believe in this vision, if we keep to this vision and if we follow this vision, we will not only go to Qatar and come back; we’ll go to the next one in the United States and Canada and the one after because for our collective good tomorrow, we are making huge sacrifices and investments today’’ he said.
‘’And hopefully when we have served and gone, those who will take over from us will take us to the promised land because of the investment we have made today.”
‘’The road ahead will be rough and muddy but as a family and a unit that believe in the vision of investing our tomorrow, we will get there’’ he added.
Meanwhile, the second phase of the ‘Football4Girls’ project has taken off in Accra with the facilitators visiting some selected schools in the Greater Accra region.
The project forms part of efforts being made to develop women’s football at the grass-roots level.
The project which is aninitiative of the Technical Directorate of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) is aimed at introducing football to the girl child at the Primary school level.
The main agenda of this phase is to honour scheduled meetings with the various Parent-Teacher Associations in the selected primary schools to share the numerous benefits in supporting their girl child to explore their interest in football at a young age.
Under the project, parents are encouraged to provide maximum support psychologically, emotionally and physically to their daughters while admonishing them to erase all the misconceptions surrounding females’ involvement in sports.
In all, parents from six schools including the Nungua Presby Primary School A and B, Nungua Anglican Primary School A, B and C, Nungua Seventh-Day Adventist primary School A and B were visited.
FIFA/UEFA Coaching instructor-Histerine De Reus, Head of Women’s Football Development at the GFA Technical Directorate- Ama Brobbey Williams and GFA Technical Director-Bernard Lippert, headlined the contingent on this all important outfield project. –GFA
