The maiden edition of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) elite U-15 Girls tournament is scheduled to kick-off from July 14-24, 2024 at the Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence, Prampram.
The elite U-15 inter-regional competition forms part of the Ghana Football Association’s Women’s Football Strategy implementation plan under its key development pillar of talent identification.
The off-season tournament will feature Girls U-15 teams from the 10 Regional Football Associations. Over the weekend, 10 qualified teams from the 10 football regions were grouped into two groups – A and B – and will compete against each other for the ultimate prize.
GROUP A comprises the Northern U-15 Girls, Ashanti, Western, Eastern and Upper East U-15 Girls, while Group B consists of the Greater Accra U-15 Girls, Brong Ahafo, Central, Volta and Upper East U-15 Girls.
GFA last month announced the plan to establish four new age-group national teams each for boys and girls to complement the existing ones. These are the U-16, U-18, U-19 and U-21 for Boys and U-16, U-18, U-19, U-21 and U23 for Girls.
These new national teams will be for developmental purposes to serve as feeders for the competitive national teams.
President of the GFA, who doubles as Chairman-National Juvenile Committee, Kurt. E.S. Okraku announced that the U15 Girls Inter-Regional Challenge competition will provide a platform for national team coaches to identify top talents for further development and progression into the appropriate age group national teams.
The Football Association already has the KGL U17 Regional Championship for boys, and the U15 Regional Challenge Cup for girls will be the first of its kind in the country.
The Association is keen on transforming women’s football and making it competitive across all levels, which will have a positive impact on the national teams.
Players from each age group will progress to the relevant next level year after year, as they will camp, train and play games locally and internationally as part of their development.