Saturday, April 23, 2011

Ghana to host African amputee soccer championship

From Xinhua:

ACCRA -- Ghana confirmed on April 18 that it had been granted the right to host the 3rd African amputee soccer cup of nations in October.

The amputee tournament, organized under the direction of the Amputee Football Federation of Africa (AFFA), is expected to attract 12 teams from the continent.

Countries like Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Angola, Congo DR, have already confirmed their participation in the competition.

Cornelius Adjah-Cofie, national president of the Ghana disabled sports, said his association was making frantic preparations to beat the deadline stipulated for the scheduled tournament.

"The signs of hosting a successful amputee soccer tournament are positive," he told Xinhua in an interview via telephone.

The African amputee tournament serves as a qualifying exercise for the 31st amputee World Cup in Japan next year.

The Black Challenge, nickname of Ghana's national amputee team, won the first ever African Cup in Sierra Leone in 2007 and placed 6th at the last World Cup in Argentina after a historic quarter- finals berth, the first by any African nation in the 60-year history of the games.