NAIROBI, Kenya, May 16- Ghana has cancelled a planned soccer friendly match against Kenya on June 1 in Nairobi, officials confirmed on Wednesday.
Instead, Kenya is planning to invite either Rwanda or Burundi for another friendly match as part of the build up for the national football team Harambee Stars.
The team is preparing for the World Cup qualifier on June 5 against Nigeria’s Super Eagles, also in Nairobi. Other teams in the group are Namibia and Malawi.
Alex Asante, Ghana Football Association (GFA) Protocol officer, wrote to Football Kenya Federation on Tuesday affirming Black Stars withdrawal.
“The fault is on our side because we are unable to assemble top stars on time and a change in the dates for our World Cup qualifier against Sudan, has forced us to make alternative arrangements and plans,” said Asante in a statement to FKF.
“We regret to inform you that the Ghana Football Association cannot honour the match. The reasons for the cancellation are that the date for our qualifying match with Sudan has been shifted from the June 9 to June 7. This thereby forces us to adopt new plans.”
Ghana also cited changes in the availability and arrival of its star players based in Europe. Most of them will be arrive in Accra from May 28, which is just two days to the match.
The statement also noted that Ghana Football Association apologizes for this inconvenience and asked for the match to be rescheduled for a future date Ghana.
“It is regrettable that Ghana’s Black Stars will not play Harambee Stars. But we will look for another chance to play them later. Now we will sound out Burundi and Rwanda for the friendly because the two countries have shown interest to play against Kenya,” said FKF Chairman Sam Nyamweya.
Kenya will start its residential training camp Monday. The team, currently made up of local based players, skipped training last week because head coach Belgian Adel Amrouche was aaway in Egypt attending a Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) seminar.
Assistant coach James Nandwa said once training starts, the team will only break once to allow them to join their clubs for league matches.
