Soccer News of Thursday, 16 May 2013

Source: GNA

Ghana handed 21 days to name squad

FIFA has given Ghana U20 coach Sellas Tetteh just over three weeks to name his final squad for the U20 World Cup which starts in Turkey on 21 June.

This comes as the world football governing body issued a June 11 deadline for the submission of squad lists for the tournament.

It means coach Tetteh has just about 25 days to name his team with several foreign-based players yet to join the Black Satellites training camp.

The local components have resumed camping whilst the foreign legion are expected at the end of the month, following the completion of the European leagues.

Participating teams including the Black Satellites for the June 21 to 13 July championship have until at least 10-days to the opening match to furnish the organisers with their 21-man squad.

Information gathered by the GNA indicates that the global football body has communicated the deadline to the 24 qualified teams as stipulated in the regulations for the tournament.

Article 25.2 of the tournament regulations states ‘the final list of 21 players (three of whom shall be goalkeepers) selected to participate in the final competition shall be submitted to the FIFA general secretariat, using the official form, at least ten working days before the opening match of the final competition’.

According to FIFA, each participating team is expected to submit an initial provisional list of 35 players from which the final 21 will be selected. Also players eligible for the tournament must have been born on or after January 1, 1993.

Ghana are housed in Group A alongside France, Spain and the United States of America.

The Black Satellites are the only African side to have won the global title, 2009 in Egypt incidentally under the technical guidance of Tetteh.