Ghana will play Switzerland in an International friendly on November 17, before travelling to Qatar for the World Cup.

The Black Stars are paired in Group H alongside Portugal, South Korea and Uruguay. Ghana will begin the campaign against Portugal on Thursday, November 24 before taking on South Korea and Uruguay in the other Group matches.

“All of us know how football is important to us, there is nobody in this country who doesn’t understand the importance of football. We grew up with football deep in our hearts and fanatical about it so I hope that the preparations that you outlined here are good enough to give our players the best possible opportunity to perform well,” President Nana Akufo Addo said.

“I remember when you came here after our qualification, I was saying that I hope that in the end you will keep the technical team intact and you did exactly that and I think it’s the best possible basis to go.

“But having chosen the technical team, I will also implore you, leave them to do their work. I think the people who run football clubs know what it is required of a good coach. He takes the responsibility, if he doesn’t you know what to do with him.

“What is always a problem is minister saying, this person should play, and saying president says I should tell you x player has to play. No, we don’t want any of that.

“We have confidence in the team you have chosen. I think we have got a very good team … Otto Addo, Chris Hughton, George Boateng, Didi Dramani and Richard Kingston. We have a very good set of people to guide our players, we should leave it to them and their professional judgement to decide the best possible combinations for us and we will do our best to support them in everything that we can.

“We will do our best to support are going to do our best to make sure that players are put in the best possible position to go ahead to carry the flag of Ghana”.

“Qatar is an unusual choice, no World Cup has ever been played in that part of the World before so it’s a breakthrough for them and my understanding is that they have gone out of their way to put together a very good tournament, the facilities and everything I hear are first class so we have no grounds to complain. ‘’As a nation all we need to do is to give the team maximum support for them to give their best.

“Our bid is to create the best conditions for the team to excel at the World Cup,” H.E Nana Addo added.