Let Stars take 2014 at their feet!
In a World Cup year and a year that will feature a host of international sporting events, national expectations of good performances by our athletes will be high.
The Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) in South Africa will kick in the new year when the local Black Stars join 15 other national teams from the continent in a championship rivalry that will last from January 11 to February 1, 2014.
Already, the Stars have started the journey for the CHAN with a training stint in Namibia where the technical team, headed by Maxwell Konadu, will be expected to sufficiently prepare its charges for the onslaught.
Expectations for the team to win the ultimate, rather than their runner-up placing at the 2009 tournament, will be boosted by their group performances against Congo, Ethiopia and Libya.
Next on the international calendar will be the U-17 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica between March 15 and April 5, 2014, at which our Black Maidens are tipped to cause a stir.
The end of the women’s tournament ushers in the biggest sporting event of the year -- the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, spanning June 12 - July 13, 2014, to be followed by the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow from July 23 - August 3, 2014, while the U-20 Women’s World Cup in Canada from August 5-25, 2014 will be the last of the major international events that our athletes will be involved in.
But the Brazil World Cup, needless to stress, is the pick of the pack for its expected sheer sensation and attraction.
Indeed, the entire globe often comes to a standstill once the FIFA World Cup is on, and it is the reason footballing nations around the world always yearn to be part of the quadrennial assembly.
And as we begin the new year today, we can only reflect on the circumstances that made Ghana achieve the honour of joining the exclusive group of 32 nations for the mundial, to be held six months from now.
It is needless to recount the circumstances, except to praise the heroics of the Black Stars players, the technical team headed by Kwasi Appiah and the management team led by the FA President, Kwesi Nyantakyi. They, including the Sports Minister, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, easily make our honours list for the outstanding roles they played in Ghana’s qualification.
And not to be excluded are the thousand and one supporters groups whose members often defied the odds, at the peril of their lives, to be at places, including the security-threatened Cairo, to cheer the Stars to victory during the qualifiers.
Coach Appiah comes in handy as the first Ghanaian ever to have attained that epoch, while we envy Nyantakyi as the sitting President of the FA to have superintended the World Cup qualification feats of the Stars three times on the trot.
Perhaps the efforts of the various sponsors, namely GNPC (the headline sponsors); Guinness Ghana Limited, Gemini LIfe Insurance Company (GLICO), Rice Masters, among others, also deserve recognition in the honours scroll.
It is our hope that 2014 will be Ghana’s year of greater sporting achievements in all spheres.
We wish our numerous readers a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
