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THE Ghana Mission in the US will coordinate with the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to ensure a smooth participation of Ghanaians at next year’s FIFA World Cup, Ghana’s Ambassador to the US, Victor Emmanuel Smith, has said.
THE Ghana Mission in the US will coordinate with the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to ensure a smooth participation of Ghanaians at next year’s FIFA World Cup, Ghana’s Ambassador to the US, Victor Emmanuel Smith, has said.
He indicated that the embassy would ensure that Ghanaians travelling to the US to support the Black Stars received the needed assistance to attend the multi-city schedule and advance Ghana’s broader agenda around the competition.
Mr Smith said this when the President of the GFA, Kurt Edwin Simeon-Okraku, paid a courtesy call on him at the embassy in the US last Friday.
The GFA president's visit was to discuss the country’s placement in the tournament and preparations ahead of the World Cup.
Mr Smith expressed optimism about the country’s chances at the World Cup, stressing that Ghana had experienced players who could make the country proud.
Mr Simeon-Okraku said Ghana, placed in Group L alongside Panama, England and Croatia, would require playing across multiple venues, namely Boston and Philadelphia in the US and Toronto in Canada.
The schedule, he said, could present logistical challenges for the team and its supporting delegation.
He said the GFA was now compelled to wait until January 16, 2026, to know where the Black Stars would camp during the World Cup.
“What we have decided to do is to still ask for our first choice because we don't ultimately know what the decisions of the other competing countries will be. So, for example, Cote d'Ivoire may decide not to camp in Boston.
“So, Boston can be available. Until January 12 or 16, we will not know where team Ghana will be camping officially,” he said.
Due to the challenges, the GFA president said the association was expecting a closer cooperation with the embassy before and during the tournament to support the team’s operations and help to push Ghana’s interests on the global stage.
Mr Simeon-Okraku indicated that the GFA was now focused on looking for a pre-World Cup camp for the Black Stars to train and prepare for the tournament.
“One school of thought is that we camp in Europe and then move straight to the team-based camp, or we have a camp in the US, acclimatise, make good use of the new market we find ourselves and then move to the team-based camp five days before the tournament starts.
“I think that personally, I'm totally inclined towards camping in the US because I think that the US is a strategic market which we have to make good use of when it comes to the association’s football,” he said.
Mr Simeon-Okraku also said that the GFA would launch the new national team jerseys in Washington, D.C., to capitalise on the US market.
He added that the GFA would take advantage of the FIFA World Cup to establish camps to identify and source young Ghanaian talent based in the US for the future.
