Black Stars head coach, Milovan Rajevac has complained about FIFA’s decision to allow European clubs to keep hold of Africa Cup of Nations bound players till six days to the start of the competition.
The AFCON, which starts in three days time, has widely been headed by the series of changes between the Confederation of African Football, FIFA, European Clubs Associations and the World Leagues Forum, regarding the involvement of European-based players.
Such players were given the nod to stay with their clubs until January 3, something Rajevac feels has affected his side’s preparation for the continental showpiece.
“Unfortunately this decision from FIFA to allow players to stay in their clubs in this period affected our plans for the preparation since most of the time we didn’t have many players to work with. Many training sessions we had 7 or 8 players and 3 goalkeepers so it’s very difficult to do some tactical work to prepare the team the way we planned in the beginning.
“Even today we had like 13 players and 4 goalkeepers. Tonight few of them will arrive so definitely it affected but it affected the other teams as well. So this was not a usual preparation for a big competition because usual preparation you have two weeks to work with the full team. This was totally different. Let’s hope that everything will be okay at the tournament. We’re gathering, we have a good atmosphere so let’s hope everything will be okay,” Milo said to the GFA.
Ghana were involved in a pre-Afcon friendly on Wednesday, as they suffered a 3-0 defeat to Algeria ahead of their first group game on Monday.
