Ghana Football Association (GFA) President Mr. Kurt Okraku has charged the Black Stars playing body and coaches to play with passion and aggression to protect the image of Ghana ahead of their upcoming African Cup of Nations qualifier (AFCON) against Sudan on Thursday, October 10, 2024 at the Accra Ports Stadium.
In a roundtable meeting in Accra, Mr. Okraku cautioned the players against playing without any desire and aggression.
“in our previous matches, we saw a Black Stars team without the desire to play, without any energy and passion, it is not possible like this, the minimum I expect and every Ghanaian expect is a team of boys who will show passion and desire to play for our country, not when your dribbled and your seen walking on the pitch and the ball is heading towards your net, that is impossible”.
According to Mr. Okraku, he will prefer to be bold and tell Ghanaians that the team is not ready to commit to the country rather than have a team that cannot be brave and die for the country on the field of play.
“I told the coach (Otto Addo) that either you guys decide to play for Ghana and the over 30 million people or you decide not to play and you will never be selected.
“I prefer being the man and leader going to the public space and say look this is the dedicated players who are ready to play for Ghana, they are not ready now but we will stay with them until they are ready and I’m prepared to make that statement.
“But once you depart from your various places and come here to put on the Black Stars shirt, naturally that should give you the pride to fight, to show passion, to show aggression, to show desire to win but what we saw in the Niger game was a complete “NO”, and we will not tolerate it”.
The Black Stars face Sudan at the Accra Sports Stadium on matchday three on Thursday, October 10, before travelling to Libya for the reverse fixture on October 15, as they seek to qualify for the upcoming TotalEnergies AFCON 2025 Morocco