The Black Stars have been challenged to secure a ticket for next year’s global gathering in Qatar
Ghana Football Association president Kurt Okraku has charged the Black Stars to rise to the occasion as their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign gets underway on Friday.
CK Akonnor’s outfit are set to welcome Ethiopia to Cape Coast for a Group G opener on Friday, three days before travelling to play as guests of South Africa on matchday two in Johannesburg.
The West Africans will be chasing a fourth qualification for the World Cup.
“It is a moment I have been waiting for as the leader of this family because this is my first time,” Okraku, GFA president since 2019, told the Black Stars in a meeting, as reported by CitiSports.
“It is a moment each one of you should be looking up to if you are a top player. If you are top player you need to belong to the topmost platform in football.
“If any of you is not a top player, please this is the door and you can walk out [of the meeting].
“It means you don’t belong to this family and the platform that confronts us beginning on Friday.”
Ghana have set sights on a return to the World Cup after missing out on the 2018 gathering in Russia.
The Black Stars first reached the global showpiece at Germany 2006, where they went on to reach the Round of 16.
They secured a qualification ticket again for the 2010 edition in South Africa, a campaign which saw a run to the quarter-finals where they lost to Uruguay on penalties.
There was a third successive appearance at the 2014 gathering in Brazil, where they suffered a group stage exit for the first time.
“If you are a top player, Dede [Andre Ayew], this is the time,” Okraku added.
“If you call yourself a top player, the world cup is the biggest platform you can think about where all the big players assemble to show what they made of.
“If you are a top coach this is the time to show it, C.K. This is the time to show that you are the best.”
In the run to Russia 2018, the Stars lost out to Egypt.