Promote women football - Freda Prempeh charges media

The chairperson of the Local Organizing Committee of the 2018 Africa Women’s Cup, Freda Prempeh has charged the Ghanaian media to channel their time and energy used to discuss foreign leagues into the promotion of women’s football as Ghana readies itself to host the 2018 Women’s AFCON.

According to Freda Prempeh despite the impressive strides women football has made in recent years, the media still does not give it the attention it deserves.

Speaking at the unveiling of the Accra Venue Organizing Committee 2018 Women’s AFCON, the lawmaker bemoaned the practice where foreign contents dominate media platform and called for the promotion of local football with much emphasis on women’s football.

She said that in the absence of the Ghana Premier League which is on hold due to the Anas exposé, the nation must turn its focus on promoting the Women’s tournament.

“Most of the time when I tune into the radio stations if it is not La Liga, it’s the European league. Yesterday (last week Thursday) when I was winding up to go home, my driver was in a bit of hurry because he wanted to go and watch Liverpool playing yesterday. It’s about time we add premium to what we have. God does his thing in his own way. We all know that Ghana is a football nation but unfortunately we are not playing the league so all that we have now as a football nation is the Africa Women’s Championship from November 17 to the first of December”, she said.

The 2018 AWCON, officially known as the Total Women's Africa Cup of Nations, Ghana 2018, will be the 11th edition of the Africa Women Cup of Nations will be contested by eight teams between November 17-December 1, 2018 in Ghana.

The tournament which has Accra and Cape Coast as venues also double as the African qualifiers to the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. The top three teams will qualify for the World Cup in France. However, if Equatorial Guinea finishes in the top three, the fourth-placed team will qualify.

The eight competing countries are Ghana, Nigeria (defending champions), Algeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, South Africa and Zambia.