Ahead of participation in their respective qualifiers for upcoming tournaments, the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has given clearance to the national U-17 and U-20 women’s team to resume camping.
The Black Maidens (U-17) will be participating in the 2020 African U-17 Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament while the Black Princesses (U-20) will be partaking in the 2020 African U-20 Women’s World Cup Qualifying Tournament.
The 2018 FIFA Women’s World Cup finalist were billed to content with Nigeria originally in May after thrashing Liberia 10-0 in the first round of qualifiers; however, due to the outbreak of coronavirus resulting in the closure of boarders, the match has now been rescheduled to 30th October – 1st November for the first leg and 20th–22nd November 2020 for the second leg.
Meanwhile, the Black Princesses who had a bye in the preliminary round will be starting their campaign against Guinea Bissau. The match will take place between September 4 and 6, and September 11-13.
In his update number 14 on measures taken to combat COVID-19 in Ghana, President Akufo-Addo charged players, technical and the management team to strictly observe the COVID-19 protocols.
According to the President, “Our female U-20 and U-17 national football teams have been given the clearance to go into their respective training camps to begin preparation towards the FIFA and CAF sanctioned international matches which begin in September. Whilst in training, the playing, technical and management teams must observe strictly, all the protocols issued by government, CAF and FIFA against COVID-19.”
Ghana has competed in all previous editions of the U-17 FIFA Women’s Cup with their best performance in 2012 when they won the bronze medal in Azerbaijan.
In 2018, Skipper Mukarama Abdullai won the golden boot (top scorer 7 goals) and the Adidas Bronze Ball (third best player).
For their part, the Princesses will be hoping to qualify for FIFA U-20 tournament and break the jinx of never moving past the group stage.
However, all other teams in contact sports remain suspended until further notice.
Story filed by Akosua Adjei.
