Sports News of Tuesday, 24 October 2017

Source: footballghana.com

Odartey Lamptey not happy with the nation's attitude towards U-17 tournaments

Odartey Lamptey has blamed the poor performance of the Starlets on carelessness Odartey Lamptey has blamed the poor performance of the Starlets on carelessness

Former Ghana striker Nii Odartey Lamptey says the nation's attitude towards FIFA juvenile competitions is the reason for our recent poor participation.

The Black Starlets failed to progress to the semi finals of the ongoing FIFA U17 World Cup.

The last time Ghana lifted the FIFA U17 World Cup tournament was in 1995 in Ecuador when they defeated Brazil 3-2 in the final.

The team returned to the juvenile World Cup this year in India after a ten-year absence but were knocked out by neighbours Mali at the quarter final stage.

According to Odartey Lamptey, who led the Black Starlets to win the 1991 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Italy, the recent failures of the team is due to their careless attitude towards the biennial tournament.

“We were not that serious about the whole competition from the beginning because look at the time we arrived in Dubai for the training camp, and the time we played our friendly games- all those factors affected the team badly during the tournament,” Odartey said on Asempa FM.

“Comparing this to our time, I quite remember that even without enough resources we went to Germany and Brazil before we went to Italy to win the trophy.”