{"id":27031,"date":"2022-10-30T19:02:59","date_gmt":"2022-10-30T19:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/uncategorized\/jerome-otchere-writes-gfas-pre-world-cup-activities"},"modified":"2022-10-30T19:26:01","modified_gmt":"2022-10-30T19:26:01","slug":"jerome-otchere-writes-gfas-pre-world-cup-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/jerome-otchere-writes-gfas-pre-world-cup-activities","title":{"rendered":"Jerome Otchere writes: GFA\u2019s pre-World Cup activities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Ghana. <\/strong><\/span>The national day of prayer and fasting for the senior national team, the Black Stars, declared by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) as they gear up for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 seemed fanciful to me.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m neither ridiculing prayer nor am I pouring scorn on fasting.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a Christian. I believe in God, who answers our fervent prayers. I fast and pray. I\u2019ve Muslim friends who also fast and pray and we all have the conviction that, when we pray, God hears us and answers us in His own time and in His way. Ghanaians are very religious people. So, I don\u2019t ridicule prayer and God\u2019s power to cause transformation.<\/p>\n

But God, who never fails in answering our prayers also gives us wisdom and the ability to think; make decisions and solve problems that saddle us even if most of those problems are self-inflicted. This is why I believe prayer isn\u2019t the solution to our problems when we take self-serving decisions and create avoidable problems.<\/p>\n

God, I\u2019m sure, pities us when He sees us side-stepping wisdom and practical solutions to our problems to pray. The GFA must\u2019ve taken the spiritual route knowing our religiosity but let\u2019s note that what God expects the FA to do is to put the national interest first and at the centre of decisions like player selection and financial rewards for the team as they prepare for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

That way, time and resources would be better used and Ghanaians would be happy. A happy Ghana, I\u2019m sure, would make God happier. That said, I must however commend the GFA for the other pre-world cup events they\u2019ve been on. The visit to President Akufo-Addo was as brilliant as the audience the FA sought with ex-Presidents John Mahama and John Agyekum Kufour.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been positive whipping public interest and enthusiasm from that angle since these are big leaders and of course, political stalwarts whose word touches the hearts of many. The GFA didn\u2019t end there. They embarked on a walk with the legends (so far the best among the pre-world cup activities); seeing ex-Black Stars players, GFA and Sports Ministry officials on a walk on the Aburi range.<\/p>\n

The camaraderie I witnessed on the walk was nice. The same must prevail at the team\u2019s camp. In all, Ghana must have an exciting, trouble-free Qatar World Cup experience. If that would happen it wouldn\u2019t be as a consequence of fasting and prayers but good leadership thinking and decision-making both on and off the field.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Ghana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Ghana. The national day of prayer and fasting for the senior national team, the Black Stars, declared by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) as they gear up for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 seemed fanciful to me. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m neither ridiculing prayer nor am I pouring scorn on fasting. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":27030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[5092,5096,5984,429,8057],"class_list":["post-27031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-ghana","tag-cup","tag-ghana","tag-jerome"],"yoast_head":"\nJerome Otchere writes: GFA\u2019s pre-World Cup activities - Ghana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The national day of prayer and fasting for the senior national team, the Black Stars, declared by the Ghana Football Ass ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/jerome-otchere-writes-gfas-pre-world-cup-activities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jerome Otchere writes: GFA\u2019s pre-World Cup activities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The national day of prayer and fasting for the senior national team, the Black Stars, declared by the Ghana Football Ass ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/jerome-otchere-writes-gfas-pre-world-cup-activities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ghana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-30T19:02:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-30T19:26:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2022\/10\/postQueueImg_4-635ecf27b7907.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/jerome-otchere-writes-gfas-pre-world-cup-activities#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/jerome-otchere-writes-gfas-pre-world-cup-activities\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Jerome Otchere writes: GFA\u2019s pre-World Cup activities\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-30T19:02:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-30T19:26:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/jerome-otchere-writes-gfas-pre-world-cup-activities\"},\"wordCount\":458,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/jerome-otchere-writes-gfas-pre-world-cup-activities#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2022\/10\/postQueueImg_4-635ecf27b7907.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Ghana\",\"Cup\",\"ghana\",\"Jerome\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/jerome-otchere-writes-gfas-pre-world-cup-activities#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/jerome-otchere-writes-gfas-pre-world-cup-activities\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/jerome-otchere-writes-gfas-pre-world-cup-activities\",\"name\":\"Jerome Otchere writes: GFA\u2019s pre-World Cup activities - 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