Minister sends goodwill messages to Queens and Meteors

Accra, April 15, GNA - The Minister of Youth and Sports Mr Clemet Kofi Humado has expressed his personal best wishes and that of the government and people to the Black Queens and Black Meteors ahead of their qualifier games on Saturday and Sunday.

The Black Queens would face their Ethiopian counterparts in the second leg of their 2012 Olympic Games qualifier on Saturday 16th April after they lost the first leg 0-1 in Ethiopia.

Mr Humado in a message of encouragement to the Queens urged the team to work to overturn the one-nil defeat to ensure they qualify for the Olympics Games in London.

"The Black Queens is Ghana's only hope for the London 2012 Olympic Games in football which is the heartbeat of the country so the team must do everything possible to qualify," the Minister said in a press release copied to GNA Sports.

The Minister also urged the Black Meteors who will be playing their Benin counterparts in the first leg of the All African Games to put in their best acts and was confident that they would put up a splendid performance by putting back the smiles on the faces of football loving Ghanaians after their narrow defeat in Sudan. "This is a difficult qualifier but I believe the National Under-23 team has put their failure to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Games behind them and are prepared to win emphatically on Sunday and make the return encounter in Benin just for academic purposes."

Mr Humado also thanked the technical and management teams of the Black Queens and the Black Meteors for their hard work and urged them not to relent on their efforts ot ensure that the teams are battle ready on Saturday and Sunday.

The Minister also asked every Ghanaian supporter and fan to remember the two national teams in their prayers as they have always done and to fill the stadiums to give their maximum support to the success of the teams.