We were ready to meet the press in Uganda – GFA

Deputy General Secretary of the Ghana Football association and Communications Director has debunked allegations by a section of the media that the Black Stars boycotted the post-match Press Conference after Ghana’s game against Uganda in Kampala.

Reports had emerged that the team boycotted the post-match Press Conference leaving both local and international journalists at the conference room for over 30 minutes without showing up.

In an interview with sportscrusader.com, the Communications Director of the FA, Ibrahim Saanie Daara, described the reports as false, malicious and mischievous as nothing like that happened.

According to Saanie, the team was not informed of a post-match press conference by the venue’s media officer as is the norm and so after the game, the team knew there would not be any press conference and left the venue.

Reacting to the claims, Saanie said, “It is absolutely not true. We were not requested to come for a press conference. No venue was made known to us and no such requests were made at the technical meeting where these requests are made.” “It’s all mischief. You see, there are rules guiding this. If you want a post-match press conference, you inform all parties during the pre-match meeting with the match commissioner’s awareness. They did not make such requests. They did not tell us of the venue, time and people to appear”, Saanie added.

“No such requests were made my brother. The Ghanaian journalists who made requests had a short press conference with the President of the FA, Dede and Coach Maxwell. So I don’t know where that news is coming from.”

“What happens is that, the home team’s media officer must tell us during the pre-match meeting which must be approved by the match commissioner. They didn’t do that and even with that we could have accommodated a late request even without the commissioner’s approval. But I was not asked”, Saanie added.