Every Word Ghana Coach Said About Black Starlets, Golden Eaglets, Manu Garba & CAF Wanting Quantity Not Quality

Published: September 17, 2018

The highlight of Ghana U17 head coach Karim Zito's post-match press conference following his side's 3-1 loss on penalties in the WAFU-UFOA Zone B qualifiers for the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations was his criticism of CAF's new format to determine the teams that will represent the continent.

Golden Eaglets coach Manu Garba spoke at length about the new qualification format and Zito is on the same page as his Nigerian counterpart, saying it does not favour West African teams who have won the FIFA U17 World Cup seven times in the past.

''Football is about tactics, They played, we played. You make a mistake and they score you. We made a mistake and then they scored. Without mistakes, goals will never be scored,'' Zito said at the post-match press conference attended by allnigeriasoccer.com.

''This tournament has brought up a lot of talents with abilities and capabilities in the game, they try to express themselves.''

He added : ''I will still repeat what my colleague said about the mode of the competition. Look at it now, West Africa is only Africa in terms of development, now there is no Niger, there's no Ghana, there's no Ivory Coast.

''It means now Africa has opted for quantity not quality, it is not the best. When you go to the World Cup, it is Africa, so they should go back and look at the whole of the qualification, it is not the right thing.''

The Golden Eaglets, Tanzania as hosts, Morocco, Senegal, Guinea, Cameroon, Uganda and Angola have qualified for the 2019 U17 AFCON.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel