GFA grants Marseille, Udinese and Rennes to delay player arrivals

The Ghana FA has granted the request made by three European clubs to delay the arrival of influential players to the Black Stars camp for the Africa Cup of Nations.

According to Fifa laws, the players should be released by their clubs by 7 January when the Black Stars camping starts.

But Marseille wanted Andre and Jordan Ayew to delay their arrival until 15 January but they were given just one day of extra stay which means they must join camp by the 9 January.

Udinese and Stade Rennes made request to have Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu & Kwadwo Asamoah and John Boye respectively to delay their arrival to the Ghana camp for two weeks so as to feature in crucial games when their respective league’s resume this weekend.

The Ghana authorities however decided to meet the clubs half way and will only compromise on a few days as a gesture of good will and magnanimity.

“We have very good relationship with most of the clubs that our players are engaged with and Olympique Marseille is one of them and they made a request to delay player arrivals,” Ghana FA boss Kwasi Nyantakyi told Citi FM.

“Initially the request was for them (Andre and Jordan) to play three games; on the 7th, on the 10th and on the 14th of January and they happen to conflict with our team program.

“But we had to bend a bit backwards in order to them half way so the compromise we struck was to allow Olympique Marseille access to the players to the first game which will be played on the 7th and then we expect the players to leave on the 8th and arrive to camp on the 9th.

“We cannot meet them 100% but we’ve tried to do something, the same dispensation has been granted Udinese and so Emmanuel Agyeman-Badu and Kwadwo Asamoah will also be playing a game on the 7th and they leave on the 8th.

“The same applies to Stade Rennes so John Boye will also be allowed to play on the 7th and then come on the 8th so by 9th we should have a full house.

“We think that if we did anything more than that it will affect the team’s preparations and if the team is not well prepared nothing can compensate us for any poor showing in Gabon.

“Therefore to prevent that we pleaded with them to bear with us that at this particular moment there is little we can do and the best we can do is to offer them this limited dispensation which they accepted and everyone is happy.”

The Black Stars begin camping ahead of the start of the Nations Cup on January 21 in South Africa on January 7th.