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26.11.2008 Football News

Satellites Off To Nigeria

26.11.2008 LISTEN
By Times Reporter - newtimesonline.com

GHANA'S U-20 male football team, the Black Satellites' leave Accra today for Nigeria to compete in the maiden edition of the West African Football Union (WAFU) tournament which kicks off on Friday, November 28, 2008.

The team will compete against Senegal, the Gambia and Guinea in Group B, and will play all their group games at the J.J. Okocha Stadium in Ogwashi-ukwu in Nigeria's Delta State.

Team Coach Sellas Tetteh has selected an 18-man squad for this tourney which ends on Sunday, December 7, with all but one of the players locally based.  The only foreign based player is Norway-based Dominic Adiyiah.

Ghana will hope to use this competition as part of their preparations for next year's African Youth Championship which has been slated for Rwanda.

The Satellites are in a very tough group judging by the quality of opposition they will face in Senegal, The Gambia and Guinea, who all hold some pedigree at this level of the African game.

The tough opposition is expected to shape them up well for the Rwandan task next year, where they hope to qualify to the world championship to be hosted by Egypt later that year.

Hosts Nigeria are in Group A for this tournament, and will play alongside Togo, Benin Republic and Guinea Bissau hoping to advance to the next stage of the competition.

Cote d'Ivoire have been handed a relatively easy group as they compete against Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Mauritania in Group C.

Group D games will be played in Oleh, with three teams – Mali, Niger and Liberia competing for the two available slots to the quarter-finals. The fourth team in the group Cape Verde, withdrew from the competition, citing their inability to raise a team at short notice.

The two top teams from each group, advances to the last eight with the semi- finals and finals set to follow as the tourney ends on Sunday, December, 2008.

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