GFA Boss outlines Ghana’s World Cup preparation plans

Ghana FA President, Kurt Okraku is counting on the upcoming 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and the imminent break in European leagues in November, to provide the Black Stars Technical Team with opportunities to prepare the senior national side for the 2022 World Cup.

According to the FIFA Calendar, clubs must release players to their national teams by November 14, seven clear days to the November 21 kick off date for Qatar 2022.

This means national teams may have only 7 to 8 days to hold a pre-tournament camping. During this brief period, the GFA plans to organise one or two friendly matches for the Black Stars to fine-tune their readiness for the global soccer showpiece.

Based on the FIFA Calendar, two windows will be open for a total of six national team assignments from May 30 to June 14, and September 19 to 27. These windows will be dedicated to qualifiers for the 2023 AFCON.

“The signals are that most of the European countries will take a break from their domestic leagues to be able to prepare for the mundial and Ghana will take full advantage of that,” Mr. Okraku told GTV Sports Plus.

“We want to take advantage of the AFCON dates to prepare and get our squad to compete in those AFCON qualifiers. That will be part of the preparation for the World Cup. And, hopefully we should get a friendly game or two in the last days before the tournament starts,” he added.

Ghana has been drawn in Group H of the 2022 World Cup with Portugal, Uruguay and South Korea after securing qualification at the expense of Nigeria.