Justifiers for inclusion into the national Amputees Football team comes off on Friday September 25, 8am at Mantse Agbona in James Town, Accra. According to Ben Charles Armah, coach of Ghana’s Amputee football side the Black Challengers, past national football icons as Ali Jahraa, Tony Baffoe, Afo Dodoo and other experienced coaches will be there to select players to represent the country at their World Cup in Brazil.
Though there is a standing team of players who have been around since they first represented the nation in 2006, the Association for Disabled Sports (ASBOD) with the support of the National Sports Council (NSC) have decided to hold the justifiers to select a very strong team for Ghana ahead of the World Cup. All past players of the team outside Accra, especially those in Kumasi and Tamale are therefore reminded to make it to the justifiers or forget about their place in the side. Not even a single member of the team which trains regularly under Coach Armah at the Prisons Park in Osu, is assured of a place in the team until they had passed stringent tests on Friday.
Invitation is open to all crippled at or near the ankle or wrist who can play football the Amputee way. A game in which outfield players may have two hands but only one leg, and goalkeepers two feet but only one hand. It is played with metal crutches and without prostheses, the only exception being that bi-lateral amputees may play with prosthesis.
The national Amputee team participated in the African championship of 2006, won third place and qualification to the World Cup in Turkey that year. Poor organization and resource mobilization meant The Black Challengers failed to arrive in Turkey on time and therefore could not play in the World Cup though they made the journey at the expense of the Ghanaian taxpayer.
Ghana is one of ten countries to have confirmed their participation in the 2009 World Cup which should have taken place in Brazil this month. Brazil stepped up in June to take on the challenge as hosts when England, originally billed to stage the event, stepped down. Now they have also shifted the tournament to November.
Ghana’s preparations have yet to kick-start but Friday’s selection exercise is expected to see the beginning of camping and cash intrusion by the NSC which has pledged to support all sporting divisions in this country.
