Madam Speaker, the gist of it all is that, you need to play, play all your heart out because there is somebody waiting to wash all your jerseys, all what have you, wash your dirty things because somebody has volunteered to do all these things for you because of the wonderful display of skills. I hope my Hon Colleague understands it and it is clear to him or even if he wants me to repeat it, maybe, when we speak gradually, I will take my time and sing it all again.
Madam Speaker, another key point is about raising the competitiveness of local league. In this vein, one must commend the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for introducing the championship tournament that is tailored to promote the quality of local players on the continent. The maiden one was held in la Cote d'Ivoire, which obviously, the local Black Stars rather did good by emerging as the runners-up.
This is an attempt to promote the quality of our local league and also ensure that at least, at any point in time, we have key players domestically who will fill in the gap. So that for me is significant, not only for Ghana but indeed, for the entire African Continent, for the fact that we sometimes experience depletion of players because of this professionalism of the football.
So it is important that at any point in time, we have local buffer stock that is committed, that has got the talent to deliver.
Maybe, I would want to end here by saying that the journey has not ended, we still have some matches to play and as the maker of the Statement said, there should be no room for complacency and that we should make sure that we go on winning and winning to make Ghana proud.
I believe that when we get there, in South Africa 2010, indeed, once again, the Black Stars will be the toast of the world and that the whole country will be proud of them.
I once again congratulate the maker of the Statement, the Chairman of the committee and I wish the Black Stars all the good luck.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. [Hear!
Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu (NPP
- Suame): Madam Speaker, I also rise to add my voice to the Statement made by the distinguished Colleague. We must congratulate the players for the sterling performance thus far.
Indeed, when they started, some big names were missing and that caused considerable consternation and anxiety. But those players who got selected to represent the nation have demonstrated that they are up to the task and that has shown in the results that they have chalked thus far.
The players have played a very compact game, they have played as a team and they have most effectively complemented one another on the field of play.
Four years ago, the nation was unsure of our qualification midway into the qualification series. Today, midway into the qualification series, we are almost sure that we are there, and that is, thanks to the efforts of the players. We must pray that they stay focused and not be complacent. We must commend the football association for their inputs and motivation.
His Excellency the President, the other day, was at the training of the players to motivate and inspire them and we must commend him for his sense of awareness. We hope he will keep on track to appropriately whip-up the enthusiasm and rekindle the spirit of the players to live up to expectation.
If a team suffers defeat, the first person to be attacked is the coach and in victory, we should also applaud the efforts of the coach of the Black Stars, affectionately called “Coach Milo”.
In the days leading to his appointment as the coach, there was a lot of brouhaha regarding his qualification and the suitability of that person to manage our national team. People even referred to him
