Liberia wins Amputee African Cup -Canaf 2011
By Peterking Quaye, Accra, Ghana – The Lone Star amputee football team of Liberia was the first team to arrive today to a heroic welcome in Monrovia this morning as they landed with the giant trophy donated by Ghana’s President Professor Evans Atta Mills.
Liberia Amputee team
The Defending Champion Liberia have repeated their dominance in the game and therefore will represent Africa at the 2014 edition in the USA. Liberia defeated Ghana on penalties 4-2 goals after the official 60 minutes of play at the Accra Sports Stadium. The 2011 Cup of African Nations for Amputee Football (CANAF), Liberia today qualified to play in the final after a heavy penalty taking session ending 4-3 after a goalless game that saw the defending Champion, Liberia reaching the final for the second time.
Liberia Amputee team at church
Liberia lock horns with Sierra Leone on Friday at the Accra Sports Stadium. Liberia was earlier seeded as the first team in Group B as they are the defending Champion ,Liberia group has was tagged the group of death as it had teams like Nigeria, Angola and Niger. Liberia beat Sierra Leone 4-3 on penalties after a goalless draw game that went into 20 minutes of extra time. Ghana beat Angola 2-0. Ghana will play Liberia in the finals and Angola will play Sierra Leone in the 3rd position match all on Saturday, 26th November at the Accra Sports Stadium.
In an interview with Shout-Africa.com, Cooper George, head coach of the Lone Stars, nickname of Liberia’s national amputee team, expressed delight over the win, saying that his side was better placed to annex the next African amputee “holy grail” in 2013.
Liberia Amputee team
“We thank God for giving us the strength to win this tournament … We are aiming to win the next championship to write our names in the history of amputee football in Africa and the world at large,” he added.
In his closing speech at the end of the tournament the President of Amputee Football Federation Of Africa said many skeptics ridiculed our attempt to bring together our African brothers and sisters to Accra to demonstrate through CANAF 2011 how passionate we are about football, our passion, under the theme, “Let’s be passionate about our passion.” We have proven them wrong.
Today, Amputee Football is reborn and the time has come for us to take a second look at this game that not only unifies us, but also inspires hope and optimism in us in the face of despair and distractions that have become prevalent in some of our endeavours. As we crown a winner for this tournament, let us remain conscious of the fact that, “in Amputee football, there is no loser, we are all winners.” Let us celebrate the victory we have all worked together to win and continue to live as one people with one destiny on a path to restore hope to Persons with Disabilities (PWD’s).
He went further to say “we need not rest our oars at this crucial moment in the life of Amputee Football; else we relapse into mediocrity and retardation, which is not our portion. The time has come for us to nurture this laudable dream of uniting Africa through our passionate sport and to make it a means of livelihood for persons who, otherwise, could have become a nuisance or parasites in society”.
Growing Amputee Football requires the active participation of all, especially the corporate world to ensure that the funds and logistics needed are available at all times.
Human resource is also very critical in this pursuit; therefore, I hereby extend an open invitation to individuals and groups of people who have a passion for football to join the executive body of AFFA to realize our dreams.
Liberian captain Festus Harrison was named the best player of the tournament while Ghana duo Cephas Abban and Collins Gyamfi were voted best defender and goalking respectively.
Dabate Manuel of Angola emerged best goalkeeper while Niger received the fair play award. Each member of the first best three national teams was presented with medals with Liberia lifting the trophy.
The tournament, organized by the Amputee Football Federation of Africa and Ghana Amputee Football Federation, were participated by six teams from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Niger, Angola, Nigeria and Ghana.
