“It was not advisable to rent a full apartment for Avram Grant” – Wilfred Osei ‘Palmer’

Accra, March 28, GNA - Wilfred Osei, Executive Committee Member of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), has said that, hiring a hotel for departed Black Stars coach Avram Grant and his two expatriate assistants is economically wise as compared to apartments, since he they hardly stay in Ghana.

In an interview with the GNA Sports, Mr. Osei stated that, the foreign coaches hardly stayed in Ghana and it was therefore not advisable for the GFA to waste huge sum of money on their accommodation adding that, the hotel option was better.

 “It’s never true that a hotel was booked for the coaches for two years. Hotels can never be booked for that long period of time. Whenever the Black Stars have a competition and the players come for an in-house camping, that is when we go in for a hotel, for the players and the technical staff as well.

“We hardly used Jamie Lawrence and Gerard Nus in our qualifiers, so it is inaccurate to say that the GFA allowed them to stay in a hotel for over two years, it is never correct.

“With Avram Grant we had an arrangement with the owners of the facilities, so if Grant is here for about two weeks, he goes and stays in that facility. Ghanaians complained that Avram Grant was not in Ghana for about three months, so why then would the GFA book a hotel for two years, knowing very well that the coach would not stay here.

“It was a simple arrangement made by the GFA and the owners of the hotel facilities and it’s the ministry that pays the bills not the GFA.

“We made an attempt to rent a facility, but when we did that we realized that the coach was not staying in the country, so why would we spend that much.” He noted.

Mr. Osei further debunked claims that former coach of the Black Stars James Akwasi Appiah was set to be reappointed as the head coach of the Black Stars.

“No coach has been appointed as the coach of the Black Stars, we are still in search for a coach and we don’t want anybody to ridicule the process.

“We know what exactly we are looking for, if at a certain point we feel that Akwasi Appiah is the right man for the job we won’t hesitate to offer him the job.

“For now, other suitors are being considered for the job and that’s what we have now.” Mr. Osei said.

GNA

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