Veteran Ghanaian coach Bashiru Hayford has implored that no player should be guaranteed an automatic spot in the Black Stars ahead of the World Cup.
The former Legon Cities coach has urged Black Stars coach Otto Addo to ensure there is competition for spots in the team before naming his final 26-man squad for the tournament.
Speaking in an interview on Accra-based radio station Radio Gold Talk Sports he said, “It depends, it’s not about something being automatic, it’s just like it’s a competition. To me, any Ghanaian who is capable or who the handlers feel will be able to achieve what we have targeted should earn the call-up.
“You know we have our plans, we have our target and we want to assemble players to achieve that target for us and so it should be a competition, nothing should be automatic. If the management feels that the names you have mentioned are now ready for the Black Stars to achieve our aim why not but I don’t think anybody should be made an automatic choice for the national team, no, or else we will spoil it.
“We should put a measurement there to see which people qualify, which people are capable to achieve our aim for us”, he added.
Otto Addo has submitted his provisional squad to FIFA with reports of about 35-55 players named in the squad.
The Dortmund trainer will name his final 26-man squad on November 10, 2022.
Ghana will compete with Portugal, Uruguay and Korea Republic in Group H of the tournament.
