Call It 'Ghana 2008' Not CAN 2008

The Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Sports, OB Amoah, says the proper acronym for Ghana's hosting of next year's African Cup of Nations is "GHANA 2008”. According to Mr Amoah, Ghanaians should begin to join the rest of the continent in calling the tournament by its real location name, Ghana 2008, rather than CAN 2008. “We should use it to sell our country,” he added. Mr Amoah, therefore, appeals to the media and advertisers to discard the former acronym (CAN 2008) and start using the new name which appropriately refers to Ghana as the host nation.“CAN” is the French acronym for African Cup of Nations whilst the English version is “ACN”. The Deputy Minister, who announced this in an exclusive interview with the Statesman newspaper, stressed: “As the host nation, we need to publicise our country with all activities connected with this big tournament and hence this new name — Ghana 2008.” On the inspection tour by the Confederation of African Football delegation, led by its President, Issah Hayatou, the Deputy Minister said the Executive Committee of the continental football controlling body would discuss a number of issues concerning Ghana’s hosting of the tournament in Accra. “We’re confident that everything is on course and we’re aware that CAF is satisfied with work so far done on the various projects at the four stadiums”, he said. Mr Amoah said after the official handing over of each of the four stadiums on November 1 to the goernment, there would be series of non-competitive “test football matches” involving local clubs, schools and tertiary institutions that would attract not more than 10,000 fans. He said other games for over 20,000 spectators would also follow up to usher in the four-nation tournament between Ghana, Benin, United Arab Emirates and Guinea from November 17 to 20. “This will be the official test before the main event from January 20 to February 10.” The Deputy Minister said everything was being done to ensure a successful tournament. “What we must start doing is to build the needed publicity by selling the nation to the outside world. And this is the responsibility of every Ghanaian to hype the tournament as much as possible to boost tourism, usually associated with events of this nature”. The Statesman