Ghana’s female Under-17 side, Black Maidens, were yesterday declared winners of their Women’s World Cup qualifying match against Congo after the visitors failed to show up for the match at the Accra Sports Stadium.
The Congolese, who had their late request for a postponement of the match rejected by the Confederation of African Football CAF), failed to show up for both the pre-match technical meeting last Friday and for team inspection yesterday. And after going through the match formalities, the Ivorian referee and the Beninnois Match Commissioner declared Ghana winners.
Moments later, the Match Commissioner officially informed the acting General Secretary of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) about the situation and indicated that the formal notification from CAF would follow soon.
To make up for their disappointment, the technical bench of the Maidens decided to have a warm-up game, raising a team from the bench to play the starting line as compensation for the sparse but loyal fans, the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Joseph Yamin, executive committee members of the GFA present.
Though the Maidens have thus won the first leg, they are likely to be declared winners of the tie as the Congolese are certain to face a fine and a ban for not showing up and bringing the game into disrepute.
The Maidens will now prepare for their November tie against Equatorial Guinea, who were to host Kenya at home yesterday.
Graphic Sports/graphic.com.gh/Ghana
