The President of New Edubiase United, Abdul Salam Yakubu, has expressed disappointment at Coach Kwasi Appiah's failure to include any upfield local player in his 26-man provisional World Cup squad announced yesterday in Accra.
The only local player listed in the Black Stars team was goalkeeper Stephen Adams of Aduana Stars, but the New Edubiase boss thought that was an indictment on the First Capital Plus Premier League.
'In fact I'm not happy at all that Kwasi Appiah did not pick any upfield local player. At least he should have selected three players from the local league to indicate to the rest of the world that our league too is not that bad,' he stressed in an interview with the Daily Graphic yesterday.
'What he (Kwasi Appiah) has done means there is no need for us to continue investing our money in the league,” he stressed in a rather worrying tone.
Referring to how expatriate coaches who led Ghana to the last two World Cups in Germany and South Africa factored local players in their teams, Abdul Salam expected Kwasi Appiah who is an indigene to do better.
'Dujkovic took Shilla Illiasu, Habib Mohammed and Philemon McCarthy to the 2006 World Cup, and Milo (Milovan Rajevac) also selected local players, including Lee Addy and we all saw how they performed.
'Even if Kwasi Appiah knew local players had no chance of making his final squad he could have added a few locals for the training tour so they could get some exposure.'
Advancing his argument further, Abdul Salam Yakubu said once it was obvious that not all the 26 players were going to be used at the Brazil tournament, the Stars coach could have included a few local players to boost the local league and club owners.
