Don’t blame Black Princesses World Cup failure on Anas exposé - Arhinful

Former Ghana international, Augustine Arhinful says the poor performances exhibited by the national U-20 female team, the Black Princesses, at the ongoing U-20 World Cup should not be blamed on the Anas exposé, which resulted in all football-related activities being halted in the country for some time.

According to the ex-Black Stars players, nobody should be blamed because the Anas exposé had no correlation with the Princesses’ shambolic performance at the World Cup.

Speaking to the media on the issue, he said, “The teams we played at the World Cup were better than us; it is as simple as that. I have heard that we didn’t go to camp early. When Coach Basigi was on radio complaining about the team’s preparations, government had not taken a decision on the Anas video.

“When Basigi started complaining about the team’s preparations, the Ghana Football Association were still in charge. We cannot say it is because of the Anas exposé that is why the team did not perform well at the World Cup. Anybody who says that doesn’t know what he is talking about.

“With or without the Anas video, we would have probably gone there and lose the matches and still come to complain about poor preparation. We should address the issues and stop finding excuses,” he added.

Prior to the World Cup, the Black Princesses failed to go abroad for a pre-tournament camping. The team had all their preparations at the Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence at Prampram, where they engaged local clubs in friendly matches. The team moved straight to France with just some few days for the tournament to kick off.

The Black Princesses have failed to qualify out of the group stage for the fifth consecutive time in the World Cup since making their debut in 2010. The Princesses lost heavily to host nation France by 4-1 and Netherlands by 4-0. They however won their last group game against New Zealand.