Ghana has qualified for the African Nations Championship (CHAN) in South Africa next year after CAF confirmed the withdrawal of Benin on Wednesday.
This means the local Black Stars have qualified for the competition without kicking a ball and become the first team to qualify for the tournament.
Ghana’s leading football news website GHANAsoccernet.com exclusively reported on Tuesday that Benin minister for sport Didier Aplogan withdrew the team from the final qualifier against the Local Black Stars.
The decision by Benin was only confirmed on Wednesday morning by Confederation of African Football (CAF), 24 hours after GHANAsoccernet.com has exclusively revealed the news.
"The Confederation of African Football confirmed Benin's decision to the Ghana Football Association, thus handing Ghana passage to the Championship as they pick one of the three slots from Zone West B," the Ghana FA said in a statement on its website.
The Ghana FA was not officially informed of the decision by the Local Squirrels until Wednesday morning which left the local Black Stars preparations in limbo.
Ghana’s leading football news website GHANAsoccernet.com exclusively reported the decision by the Benin minister for sport Didier Aplogan which plunged the GFA into a frantic search in Benin to confirm whether the country has withdrawn from the competition.
With the confirmation now coming, the Local Black Stars will now have to start preparing for the tournament to be held in South Africa next year.
Ghana are lucky as they did not play in any of the qualifiers to reach the competition to be played in South Africa next year.
Sports Minister Didier Aplogan took the decision to withdraw the Benin national team citing the inability of the state to finance expenditure related to the competition.
However, GHANAsoccernet.com insiders say confusion within the leadership of the football federation led to the decision by the minister to withdraw the team.
A misunderstanding between the President of the Benin Football Federation (FBF) Â Anjorin Moucharafou and his vice president Valere Glele (officer in charge of the CHAN) led to the withdrawal.
The president of the FBF proposed to lead the Benin delegation for the meeting of July 7 instead of Valere Glèlè leading to the stand-off.
These problems led to the decision by the minister to truncate the preparation of the Squirrels in next year’s CHAN competition.
As a reminder, the third edition of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) will be held in South Africa in 2014.