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Soccer News of Wednesday, 11 September 2002

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We Cannot Take Blame For Loss - GFA

The Ghana Football Association has reacted to claims by Black Stars Coach, Milan Zivadinovic that the soccer controlling body failed to help him prepare the team for the Ugandan match.

The Black Stars were beaten 1-0. The Coach referred to his training tour of Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia, which was called off at the eleventh hour.

The coach says canceling the trip created the recipe for failure because he could not see his first choice players playing in a competitive match.

The GFA cancelled the trip to Yugosalvia because the flight schedule to Yugoslavia seemed cumbersome and too exhausting on the players who had just about a week to the crucial qualifier against the Ugandans.

An intended trip to Turkey and Greece also did not materialize because of flight problems. But the FA is refusing to take the blame for the senior national team’s failure to win in Uganda.

Officials say Ziva was given the opportunity to play trial games with local clubs, Hearts of Oak, Asante Kotoko and Great Olympics but the Yugoslav turned it down.

According to the FA, the assertion that the inability of the Black Stars to play some international friendly matches was because of the unavailability of funds is false.

Some FA officials have described Ziva’s comments that he will sack 30% of the foreign based players he used in Kampala as unfortunate and the worst ever comment passed by a coach after just one game in charge of the senior national team.