GFA unveils new Mini Van for grassroots coaching in Ghana

The Ghana Football Association (GFA), has announced that its application for the European Union Football Association (UEFA) Assist programme for CAF member Associations has been duly approved by the European football governing body.

The GFA made the application via the Confederation of African Football (CAF), in partnership with UEFA for support in the area of technical and grassroots development.

The GFA, through the UEFA Assists programme, requested for a Mini Van to assist the federation in its new grassroots coaching agenda.

The MiniVan will enable the Technical men and women to travel around the country to scout for talents and deliver soccer coaching clinics to coaches at the grassroots level.

It would also enable the GFA to build strong youth teams, offer opportunities for kids, and alleviate the transportation challenges that hamper the Association’s juvenile coaching programmes in the Regions.

The President of the GFA, Kurt E.S Okraku during the unveiling at the Association’s Secretariat in Accra on Friday said: "One of the key things that we have said is the fact that it’s important to get our fundamentals right, so in view of that, we have been looking at how to improve Coaching across the board especially as we embark on a journey to establish a fully functional Technical Directorate.”

He added that "One of the most important needs was to ensure that we provide quality transportation for members of our Technical Directorate as they travel through the length and breadth of the country to scout for players, to run coaching clinics at the grassroots level and to ensure that generally, we improve the capacity of our Coaches across the board.

"Having recognized that need, we looked for partners who would help us solve our needs and one of such was the UEFA Assists.”

He explained that the GFA went through CAF to apply and through the hard work of the Secretariat, the Van has been donated by UEFA through the UEFA Assists programme, to give grassroots coaching in Ghana the best it deserves.

Mr. Okraku expressed gratitude saying "I am very grateful to CAF and UEFA for this amazing assistance. I think that this will go a long way to help our rejuvenated technical directorate to be on the go again.”

He thanked the former Technical Director of the GFA, Francis Oti Akenteng.

"He was key in we, identifying this possibility, he was key in ensuring that Ghana did not lose out on this facility, so I say thanks to him so much.

"This is the way we must work. Francis Oti Akenteng has played a big role in Ghanaian football history and this is one of the many opportunities that he found for us, we worked on it and today, we have this special Mini-Van here.

"I am sure that I will have the chance to travel across the country with members of our Technical Directorate on this Van" Mr. Simeon-Okraku added