What the French Football Federation/GFA Women’s Initiative Project is about

The Black Princesses of Ghana are currently in France on a 7-day training program through the support of the French Embassy in Accra with technical assistance from the France Football Federation (FFF)

Here are facts about the program:

A. What is the French Football Federation/ Ghana Football Association Women’s Initiative Project about? The Project led by the French Embassy in Ghana called “Ghana Olympique – GO!”, is a strategic initiative to partner with the Ghana Football Association in order to professionalize women’s soccer for over 20 Ghanaian players, coaches, referees, together with the French Football Federation (FFF).

The program would take place both in France and in Ghana. The Embassy’s partnership with FFF and GFA is to execute a part of Component 3 of the FSPI GO! Initiative. In this component, the focus is on encouraging more female sports practices of which football is inclusive.

B. What is the objective of the Project? To help professionalize women’s football for over 20 Ghanaian players, coaches, referees, together with the French Football Federation. The program would take place both in France and in Ghana.

C. What is the timeline of this Project? As part of the activities, there would be an exchange in both directions, that is, technical team of the FFF visiting Ghana and the Ghanaian players going to Clairefontaine, France (10th -17th February 2024) for a training course. There will also be a second training in Ghana in Q2 or Q3 of 2024. This project is solely focused on women, and they would be given priority for travel and other benefits.

D. Project activities completed so far. i. The team from FFF led by its International Technical Director, visited the GFA in Accra in 2023 to better understand the needs and the environment in which footballers evolve, to know how things work for female footballers/trainers/referees to enable the FFF team adjust the content of their training to the level and the needs of the players.

ii. Part of their visit exposed them to a football match for two women’s football clubs at the McDan AstroTurf Park. The meeting is to ascertain the needs, challenges and how things work in the world of female football in Ghana (from scouting to grooming) iii. A field meeting/visit was conducted at Prampram to recce the venue as the place for Phase 2 of the project.

E. Who are the training participants? The Ghanaian U-20 Women’s team, Black Princesses and its Technical Team will participate in this project.