Ghana Beach Soccer: Shocked Black Sharks coach still optimistic despite GFA dramatic Afcon “withdrawal”

The coach of the national Beach Soccer team has expressed optimism that all is not yet lost and he’s still hopeful that by Monday the Ghana FA will reverse it’s bizarre decision to withdraw the Black Sharks team from the 2021 Beach Soccer AFCON qualifiers.

Coach Daniel Kotey refused to be drawn into the issue of why the GFA did not give reason or notification to beach soccer stakeholders including the Competitions Committees and the national team Committee before sending an email to CAF headquarters in Cairo.

Coach Kotey is of the view that mistakes can be corrected and it is not too late to salvage the Kampala leg of the qualifier.

“I had to plead with the Chairman to allow me to have the boys in camp immediately after the draw because of the experiences we had in Kenya for a qualifier and then in Seychelles for Afcon 2016.”

He further elaborated that intense preparations were the only way to get his players in top shape for action.

“The only way to give the boys an advantage especially when Uganda have now taken Beach Soccer so seriously and are investing so heavily is to be in top shape”.

Coach Kotey led Ghana to the 2016 AFCON in Seychelles as well qualifiers in Mombasa, Kenya, Entebbe Uganda, Copa Lagos in Nigeria and the Durban Cup in South Africa.

He’s a former youth coach of Accra Great Olympics and switched to beach soccer almost 8yrs ago.

The sentiments of coach Kotey were shared by team captain Michael Sema who has also been to 3 AFCON tournaments.

“In fact we were all shocked when we saw the strange news online before the chairman and our coach briefed us more. We know they will do whatever to make sure our dreams are not killed. As for we the players, from day one we have been ready to die for our motherland Ghana”.