A former member of the National Division One League Board and Head of Sports at A1 Radio, Humu Khrusum Tahiru, has expressed some doubt over Ghana’s “host and win” ambition, saying the current shape of the Senior National female team, Black Queens, does not seem to be up to that task.
“I know that miracles do happen and also anything can happen to brighten our chances in the Tournament and Ghana may win. My worry is the state of the team, is it strong enough? And what if miracles don’t happen, can we all sit and be comfortable that the team will win?
It’s my prayer that, all strategies the Technical Team will come up with should work for us and the ladies commit themselves fully to the Ghanaian ambition of hosting and winning, then we can go far and possibly win.” She said.
Ghana is hosting this year’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nation (AWCON) and it is the expectation of the Local Organizing Committee(LOC) that Ghana wins the Tournament as other countries have done in the past; hosted and won.
The team has played some international friendlies and the outcomes and performance did not match up to what Black Queens has been known for, and that could be the reason for the doubts over the team’s readiness for the tournament, which starts on Saturday, November 17, 2018, at Cape Coast, in the Central Region of Ghana.
Humu Khrusum Tahiru however believes that, Ghana hosting the Tournament will revive the interest in women football across the country once again and wants the Ministry of Youth and Sports to create the enabling environment to new football clubs to come up and the existing once get better as their participate in community or regional tournaments.
“Now the National Under 17 female team, Black Maidens are playing at the World Cup, and so far it’s not been bad. All these will cause parents to be interested and more girls will come out, wanting to play and if there are no Clubs or school teams to absorb them, they will coil back. It doesn’t look like we will win, but we can take advantage of the Tournament to awaking our women football and football in general from slumber.”
According to her, there is no other opportunity to repair Ghana’s dented image among football nations, after the Anas number 12 exposé, than the Women’s Africa Cup of Nation, all hands must be on deck to correct all wrongs.
“We can win back the supporters love, win back sponsorship opportunities and clear all doubt about people leading football in Ghana. Ghana has a lot of talented footballers, both females and males, but they will need the enabling environment and motivation to get them developed and possibly turned into career.”
Source: a1radioonline.com / 101.1MHz / Ghana
