Don't blame the Tamale pitch for Uganda stalemate - Osei Palmer

Executive Member of the Ghana Football Association, Wilfred Osei Palmer has debunked suggestions that the Tamale Sports Stadium played a role in the Black Stars' inability to beat Uganda.

Football enthusiasts have lamented the nature of the Tamale Stadium pitch which they believe constituted the team’s draw against the Cranes of Uganda in the first match of the 2018 World Cup.

However, in an exclusive interview with Happy FM’s Anopa Bosuo sports from the Black Stars base in Durban, South Africa, where they will lock horns in a friendly encounter with Bafana Bafana, Wilfred Palmer rejected the notion that the pitch was the bane of the team in their failure to pick maximum points on Friday.

“I didn’t see anything wrong with the pitch on the day. It will be naive on my part to attribute the results of the game to the Tamale pitch,” Osei Palmer said.

“As at the time we chose to play the game in Tamale, the pitch was in better shape than Accra stadium. I’ve heard people also say that the day of the match didn’t help, but do we believe if we had played the game on a different day, we’d see a better result?. I don’t believe that played a role in the outcome of the match because after all, we’ll play them anyway.

“And from the checks we did after the match shows clearly that the Stadium was filled to about 90%.”

The Black Stars will travel to Cairo to play table toppers Egypt on match day two of the Russia 2018 World Cup next month.