Beach Soccer AFCON: Black Sharks open camp in Keta

Ghana's national men's beach soccer team, Black Sharks, have begun their training camp in Keta, Volta Region, as they prepare for the 2024 CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Beach Soccer tournament, set to take place in Hurghada, Egypt.

According to the technical team, the decision to camp in Keta was aimed at providing the squad with an ideal environment to adequately prepare for the challenge ahead.

The President of the Ghana Football Association’s Beach Soccer Committee, Yaw Ampofo Ankrah, confirmed that the team commenced training last Sunday and would continue their camp until Tuesday, October 15, before departing for Egypt.

"The Black Sharks were supposed to start camping earlier but the original training schedule was delayed due to a lack of funding from the Ministry of Youth and Sports," he told  the Ghana News Agency (GNA).

Despite these setbacks, he gave an assurance that the technical team would do everything within its power to ensure the team was well-prepared for the AFCON to bring glory to the nation.

Assistant Coach of the Black Sharks, Julius Caesar Bekley, told GNA that a 17-man squad had been assembled for training, out of which the final 12 players would be selected to represent Ghana in Egypt.

Highlighting the team’s impressive qualification campaign, where they eliminated Côte d'Ivoire's Sand Elephants, winning 10-5 on aggregate, he expressed confidence that the Black Sharks could replicate this performance at the tournament, despite being pooled in Group A alongside the hosts, Egypt, Morocco and Tanzania.

The defending champions, Senegal, are in Group B along with Mozambique, Malawi and Mauritania, for the October 19 —26 tournament, with the two finalists securing spots in the 2025 Beach Soccer World Cup in the Seychelles. —GNA