Former Ghana Football Association (GFA) vice president, George Afriyie selecting players into the national team, Black Stars, must be based on merit and not on the grounds of “affiliations and friendship.”
He was reacting to the Black Stars exit from the AFCON tournament after losing 3-2 to a Comoros Islands who ranked 132nd on the FIFA Coca-Cola men’s ranking.
George Afriyie speaking to Accra-based Asaase Radio and monitored by Angelonline.com.gh said, under no circumstances should favoritism be the order of the day for inviting players to the Black Stars.
“We don’t build a national team by calling players who are affiliated to us, our friends, or ignore players who are represented by our opponents. That is not how you build a team,” the 2019 GFA Presidential candidate noted.
The former Black Stars management committee chairman admitted added that players who deserve a call-up on merits are overlooked allegedly because they are not directly connected to persons at the helm of the current FA administration.
Players such as Philemon Baffour, Emmanuel Lomotey, Benjamin Tetteh among others, have been labelled by football pundits and journalists as associates to the GFA President Kurt Edward Simon Okraku, hence their regular call-ups into the black stars.
