Ghana national male U-20 team, the Black Satellites, are scheduled to play three high profile friendly matches in the lead up to next month’s WAFU Zone B U-20 Cup of Nations tournament, Niger 2022.
Already, Coach Karim Zito’s team has been playing series of test matches as part of preparations for the upcoming competition which also serves as qualification for the TotalEnergies Africa U-20 Cup of Nations.
The Ghana Football Association (GFA) announced that the Black Satellites will test their strength against Division One side, Tema Youth, on Tuesday, April 26, 2022 at the Accra Sports stadium before facing Academy side, Euro Africa, on Thursday, April 28 at the same venue.
The Black Satellites will wrap up their preparations with another crunch tie against Zone Three side, Kpando-based Heart of Lions on Tuesday, May 3, 2022. From there, the team will make its way to the capital of Niger, Niamey, for the tournament.
The biennial tournament will get WAFU Zone B’s activities underway for this year. It will be held in the capital, Niamey, from May 7 to May 20, 2022.
Ghana will compete with rivals Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, Togo and hosts Niger for the coveted trophy. Ghana goes into the competition as defending champions having beaten Burkina Faso 2-1 to win the title in Benin two years ago.
In a bid to retain the title or at least qualify for the continent-wide tournament later this year, Coach Abdul Karim Zito’s team is currently preparing at the Ghanaman Centre of Excellence in Prampram.
The Black Satellites will come up against the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria and Young Stallions of Burkina Faso in the Group stage of the Championship, having been drawn in Group B of the two-group tournament. Group A comprises host, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, and Togo.
Route to FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia
Finalists from this Tournament will represent WAFU Zone B at the 2023 CAF U-20 Tournament which will take place in Egypt from February 18, 2023 to March 12, 2023.
The top four teams in the tournament to be staged in the North African country, Egypt, will then qualify to the FIFA U20 World Cup in Indonesia. The tournament is now scheduled for 2023 after the planned 2021 FIFA U-20 World Cup competition was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.
The FIFA U-20 World Cup is a biennial football world championship for male players under the age of 20, organized by FIFA. Since the first tournament was held in 1977 in Tunisia, the competition has been staged every two years and until 2005, it was known as the FIFA World Youth Championship. The current champion is Ukraine which won its first title at the 2019 tournament in Poland.
So far, eleven different nations have won the title in the previous twenty-two editions of the tournament. Argentina is the most successful team with six titles, followed by Brazil with five titles. Portugal and Serbia have both won two titles (with the latter winning once as Yugoslavia), while Ghana, Germany, Spain, France, England, Ukraine and Russia (as the USSR) have all won the title once.
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