(From Veronica Commey, GNA Special Correspondent in Shanghia, China. Courtesy Ministry of Education, Science and Sports)
Shanghia, China, Sept 17, GNA - Fred Crentsil, Chairman of the Management Committee of Ghana's national female team, the Black Queens has jumped to the defence of the team's technical partnership with Hull University which many partly attribute to the team's abysmal display at the ongoing FIFA Women World Cup in China.
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) technical partnership with the United Kingdom based University had ensured Dr Lovlle Rick and Greham Porter got drafted into the team's technical bench which has so far supervised the team's two defeats.
Even though accusing fingers are been pointed at the partnership which most of the players believe attributed to the team's downfall, the Chairman insist the Queens has rather improved with the arrival of the duo.
"I do not agree that the team has retrogressed since their arrival. I rather see improvement in their play, " he told GNA Sports in Shanghia.
Crentsil stated that the team recently managed wins over Nigeria, Ethiopia and South Africa in their Olympic Games qualifiers largely because of the influence of the two Englishmen.
The Queens beat Ethiopia 3-1 in Addis Ababa, proceeded with a 1-0 win over the Falcons of Nigeria in Accra before pushing a 1-0 bitter pill down the throat of the South Africans in Johannesburg. A supposed disagreement on Saturday compelled the team to dump the 3-5-2 system, alleged to have been proposed by Greham, the technical director after the 1-4 loss to Australia in the first game for their much more familiar 4-4-2 system against Canada. The players had their roles changed for the second game in which they lost 0-4 to Canada.
Even though most of the players claim there are 'too many captains in the ship', Crenstil told GNA Sports he has not received such complains from the Isaac Paha led-technical team. Information pieced together by GNA Sports however suggest the technical team appears livid by the team's Management Committee's decision to recruit the two without prior notice but the Chairman insists "the technical team had no objection to the appointment of the two."
Dr Lovlle, Sports Scientist and Greham, a coach are often on the team's bench during matches with the former taking the players through warm-ups before and during the game whilst Greham, according to Crenstil acts as the technical adviser to the team.
Dr Lovlle is tasked with studying the physiology, stamina level and drawing out training schedule for the girls.