{"id":243945,"date":"2015-01-16T01:23:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T01:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/dr-kofi-amoah-rubbishes-ghanas-afcon-2017-bid\/"},"modified":"2015-01-16T01:23:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-16T01:23:00","slug":"dr-kofi-amoah-rubbishes-ghanas-afcon-2017-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2015\/01\/16\/dr-kofi-amoah-rubbishes-ghanas-afcon-2017-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr Kofi Amoah rubbishes Ghana\u2019s AFCON 2017 bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Sports News of Friday, 16 January 2015<\/p>\n

Source: <\/strong>tv3network.com<\/p>\n

\n

\"Kofi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Local Organising Committee (LOC) Chairman of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, Dr Kofi Amoah, has shot down the country\u2019s bid to host the continental show piece for the second time in a decade.<\/p>\n

Ghana has been shortlisted as one of the four countries from which the Confederation of African Football (CAF) will name the 2017 hosts, this year.<\/p>\n

But Dr .Amoah, who fronted Ghana\u2019s successful bid in 2008, said the current economic situation coupled with the proximity of the bid to the previous one makes the current bid a misplaced priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in state function; in nation building; in bringing civilization to your community, you must do first things first,\u201d he told TV3\u2019s Juliet Bawuah in an interview on Thursday, January 15.<\/p>\n

He argued that the over $300 million invested in facilities including two new stadia have not been completely made use of – especially to the benefit of the country\u2019s economy and the football industry – for a new bid to be filed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we haven\u2019t done that and we are quickly going to throw more money around to host…for what?\u201d<\/p>\n

He described such bids as social investments with returns not immediately felt.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we have all these problems of dumsor, of importation, of unemployment, of graduates coming out not getting jobs\u2026are we not focusing on the first things first?\u201d the businessman said.<\/p>\n

He called on authorities to rather work on repairing the dented image of the country following happenings at the 2014 World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe smoke has not settled yet and we are going to do another thing that doesn\u2019t make economic sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Egypt, Gabon and Algeria are among the countries shortlisted to host the 31st edition of the tournament, which was originally scheduled to be hosted by Libya.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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