AFCON belongs to us - Ghana FA to African Cup of Nations naysayers

• The African Cup of Nations (AFCON) is scheduled to go ahead as planned in January next year after several postponement and cancelation calls from FIFA and Europe
• The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has had to go toe to toe with the European Clubs Association (ECA) and FIFA over whether the tournament should be staged
• Ghana Football Association's (GFA), Communications Director, Henry Asante, has said the nations football association supports CAF's decision to let the tournament go on

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has pledged it's support to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) over the staging of the 2021 African Cup of Nations.

The GFA Communications Director, Henry Asante-Twum also indicated that the GFA completely agreed with CAF’s decision to go ahead with AFCON 2021 in January 2022 just as planned.

This comes after several calls of postponement and cancelation of Africa's biggest football tournament from the European Clubs Association and FIFA.

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FIFA president, Gianni Infantino in a recent speech stated that it would be suitable if the AFCON was held in the long summer break of autumn, and not the start of the year.

Henry Asante-Twum of Ghana's Football Association, said Africans must stand firm in protecting the brand of age old AFCON.

"I’ve also listened to the CAF president Dr. Patrice Motsepe who says the tournament will go ahead according to schedule and we cannot help but agree with these assertions from the leadership of football on the African continent.

"AFCON belongs to us, we must preserve and protect the integrity and dignity of this brand and as far as the FA is concerned, that is what we are seeking to push”, he noted

The spokesperson for the GFA, also added that it was not the first time foreign bodies had expressed wishes of not having the AFCON when it was supposed to be had, calling for "respect of the AFCON brand", which had been in existence for more than 60 years since 1957.

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“This is not the first time we’ve had people express their opinion on the African Cup of Nations and the timing and all related issues, and it will not be the last time.

"The African Cup of Nations has been around since the foundation of football in Africa from 1957. We’ve built this brand from 1957 until now, we’ve had some 30 editions of the AFCON and we have to respect the brand", Mr Asante-Twum said.

Mr Asante-Twum noted that while the FIFA president and some European clubs can have their opinions, the AFCON and its traditions needed preserving and the GFA supported that position by CAF's Executive Committee.

“The FIFA president can make his opinion known – I know there are certain clubs that are reluctant in releasing their players, we respect all that but the AFCON is the AFCON.

"We need to preserve the tradition of African football so the position of the Ghana Football Association is simple, and our position is that we respect the decision of the Executive Committee of CAF that the tournament should go ahead as scheduled", he opined.

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With the tournament slated to start on January 9, and with Ghana set to open it's AFCON account on January 11 against Morocco, the Black Stars will leave Ghana for Doha, Qatar on Friday to begin camping.

9 top-5 European clubs to lose players to Ghana AFCON squad

Meanwhile, in an earlier sportsbrief.com publication, from the 30-man squad announced by Ghana Black Stars Coach, Milovan Rajevac for AFCON, nine of the players play for clubs from the top five European leagues.

With as many as 25 out of the 30 players named in the squad plying their trade outside Ghana, and only five playing in the country, it is expected that quite a number would be from Europe's top five leagues.