Ghana Beach Soccer returns to international action after two year absence
The exploits of Ghana’s beach soccer club champions at the Copa Lagos in Nigeria may have come as a surprise to many but it should not be.
Indeed, the national beach soccer league has been on ice for over a year and similarly there has been no activity for the beach soccer national team Black Sharks over this period.
However, Ghana was tipped to be among the hottest national teams as far back as 2015 at the Afcon finals in Seychelles where they defeated Senegal 4-3 in the game of the tournament but were eliminated on goal difference by Morocco.
Ironically, lack of support from the previous Ghana FA was a key factor in the slump of what many believed was a rising team and future African champions.
The period of normalization in Ghana football witnessed several changes among which was the review of statutes and acceptance of beach soccer as an official member of the Ghana FA.
Exactly a week after the county’s football gurus had elected the young dynamic Kurt Okraku as their new President, Ghana was back on the sand.
This time, represented by their most successful beach soccer club Keta Sunset.
Packed with several national team players, the impact has been immediate and quite spectacular with the 15 goals in under one hour scored by Sunset club, a new competition record.
The previous tournament goals record of 11 was set by the beach soccer team of EPL giants Arsenal in 2014.
Keta Sunset have won the Ghana Beach Soccer League three times and are the current reigning Beach Soccer champions of Ghana.
Ghana also holds the Beach Soccer Afcon goal-scoring record which was set at Afcon 2015 in Seychelles by Black Sharks striker Alexander Adjei (17 goals).
At the same tournament, the Black Sharks defeated host nation Seychelles 12-1 which was the tournament record victory margin.
Due to inactivity on the international stage for such a long period, the Black Sharks are currently 14th in Africa (CAF) and ranked 95 in the world by FIFA.
It remains to be seen how deep the support for beach soccer would be from the new administration.
However, the President of the Ghana Beach Soccer Association Yaw Ampofo Ankrah has already declared his firm support for the Okraku administration by insisting that beach soccer is now about to take off and make up for the lost years under a new focused direction.