Arhinful blasts Duncan for Ghana Olympic exit

Published on: 13 April 2011

By Patrick Akoto

Ex-international Augustine Arhinful has attacked Ghana Under-23 coach David Duncan for the team's shock exit from the 2012 London Olympic Games eliminators.

He believes the former AshantiGold coach is to be blamed for his over-reliance on locally-based players who flustered in the preliminary qualifier against Sudan.

The Black Meteors lost 0-1 at home and drew 1-1 in Khartoum after the team was revamped  with five foreign-based players and bowed out 2-1 on aggregate.

The 1996 Olympian claims Duncan must take the whip for poor selection.

"It's surprising that in a big competition like this he (Duncan) relied solely on local players. Qualification to the Olympic games over the years has been a combination of both local and foreign players," Arhinful told Citi FM Sports.

"The Nigeria team that won the Olympic in 1996 were predominantly foreign based players and if you look at the Cameroonian side that won the competition in 2000, they used foreign players to achieve that aim and so it wasn’t proper he shut the door on the foreign players in the initial stages."

"The dice was cast for us when we lost the first leg at home and the hurriedly arranged plan to have few foreign players to help salvage the situation backfired on him and he should be held responsible for his indecisions."

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.
Learn more