Sports Ministry approves Saudi Arabia and France friendlies

The Ministry of Youth and Sports has given the Ghana Football Association the approval to honour two international friendly games.

A statement signed by the ministry’s Technical Advisor Dr. Emmanuel Owusu Ansah reads:

The Ministry of Youth and Sports has given approval to the Ghana Football Association to honour two (2) international friendly matches.

The matches are:

1. *Ghana Black Stars vrs Saudi Arabia on 10th October, 2017 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia*

2. *Ghana Black Queens vrs France Female national team on 23rd October 2017 in Paris, France*.

The Ministry gave the approval based on the facts that the coach is in the progress of building a formidable national team for the future and he needs to give the new players a lot of playing time to evaluate their performances. It is therefore necessary to play many international friendly matches especially when it comes at no cost to Ghana.

With regard to the Black Queens, they have qualified to play in the AFCON Women’s Cup of Nations to be hosted by Ghana in 2018. As a host nation, the Black Queens will not participate in the qualifiers for the tournament. Therefore the only way to allow the coach to select a national team and keep them in shape is through national and international friendly matches. The France international match is also coming at no extra cost to the state.

The host nations for the friendly matches are providing air transportation to their countries and provide internal transportation, accommodation and feeding for the Ghanaian contingent.

The host nations financial commitment to Black Stars and the Black Queens are Two Hundred Thousand Dollars ($200,00) and Forty Thousand Euros (€40,000) respectively.