John Mahama outlines his plans for rebuilding of Black Stars

The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama, has promised to revive Ghana Black Stars when he is voted into power.

The former President, who is on a campaign tour ahead of the 2024 elections, promised that he would collaborate with the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to build the new Black Stars team around local-based players.

He claimed that Ghana's shameful performance at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations is a result of the decline of football in the country.

"We performed abysmally because we are not growing our football. So we are going to work with the football association to start caching them young so that we can train them, and give them to local teams. They will get experience before if they even want to travel, abroad they can travel."

"We will build the new Black Stars based on homegrown players. Domestic players who have trained for a long time and play as a team. And then we bring the foreign ones to blend with them. If you bring the foreign players, they don't play together because they play in their individual teams. The core should be local players who we will camp them. Keep camping them for a long time then when we are going, so when we are going for a tournament, we can bring some of the foreign players we will have a better team," he added.

Ghana football has come under criticism after Black Stars suffered a group stage exit from the AFCON.

The Black Stars finished third place in Group B with two points, losing 2-1 to Cape Verde in the opening game, followed by 2-2 draws with Egypt and Mozambique in the second and final group matches respectively.

EE/EK