The president of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC), Mr Ben Nunoo Mensah, has charged the Black Queens to do their best to qualify for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The Black Queens are two qualifiers away from landing their first-ever Olympic Games appearance.
Ghana will host the Copper Queens of Zambia tomorrow at the Accra Sports Stadium in the first leg of the third-round qualifier.
Ahead of the game, the GOC president led a delegation from the GOC to visit the team at the Accra Sports Stadium to urge them to make sure Ghana was represented in football at the global games.
He told the team that the GOC was firmly behind them and would follow them closely as they chase the Olympic ticket for the first time.
“We want to see you make it to the Paris Games this year so we allocated $45,000 to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) at the start of the qualifiers as our support to facilitate the teams’ journey to the Olympic Games.”
According to him, an amount of $9,000 was first advanced to the GFA for the team at the start of the qualifiers followed by the release of a further $22, 900.
“There is an additional 13,200 waiting to be given out for the team for further preparations.
He expressed the belief that the GOC does not have any doubt in their ability to scale the Zambia hurdle.”
“Treat the Zambia game as a do-or-die affair because when you advance to the final stage, the rest of the monies would come to you; there is no way Black Queens must miss out on the Paris Olympics Games, ” he told the team.
Mr Mensah also stated that all eyes are now on them to save Ghana football, adding that Ghanaians were looking at them to bring love to football fans.
He revealed that the GOC has already prepared the team’s base in France, knowing that they were making it to the Games, hence all they needed to do now was to get past Zambia and either Tunisia or Morocco.
He praised the winsome spirit and effort Coach Nora Huptle has imbibed in the side, which has endeared the team to Ghanaians.
He later presented assorted bottled water to the team.
On her part, Coach Nora Hauptle thanked the GOC boss for the visit and assured him that they would do their best to make Ghana proud by picking the Olympic ticket.
The Black Queens defeated local club side, Berry Ladies, 2-1 in a preparatory game yesterday.
BY RAYMOND ACKUMEY
