Former GFA communications director, Ibrahim Sannie Daara, is confident Ghana can benefit from not publicising Black Stars names for the 2022 World Cup.

Ever since Netherlands and Uruguay, especially, made public, names of their provisional list for the World Cup, Otto Addo and his assistants have been submerged under subtle waves of pressure from fans of the Black Stars, eager to see names submitted to FIFA.

FIFA is expected to have received a provisional list from all World Cup-bound countries on October 21. Addo’s list is reported to include names of Hudson Odoi, Abdul Salis Samed, Majeed Ashimeru and a host of other names, but with no word from the GFA, nothing has been confirmed, and Saanie Daara is pleased Ghana could have wild cards.

“World football has changed completely, and I agree with the point that sometimes you should trick your opponents a bit. As part of it, I will agree with the thought we should not make public our full squad to anybody until the World Cup when we are able to pull surprises,” he told Nathaniel Attoh on the JoySports Link.

With the Black Stars drawn in Group H, alongside Portugal, Uruguay and South Korea, the clamour to see a provisional set of Black Stars names stems from a desire, to see how Ghana matches up with their opponents.

However, Sannie wants fans to exercise patience for the good of the national team.

“If it is, we want to please fans as they want to know what the squad looks like, fans should also understand that the World Cup is the big deal. Through these friendly matches, you can see some of your errors, and players who can fit in certain positions or not. But also, you must go into the tournament with some element of surprise.

“If you don’t and maybe you start playing with your first full team in your friendly matches, already you have given maybe 80% of your strategy to your opponents. These days, people are going into the nitty-gritty, the tiniest details before they play matches. We have 3 video analysts, Portugal has 20. Which means they are monitoring the movements and tricks of every player you have.”

The squad of 55 will be pruned down to 26 and submitted on November 14 – a deadline set by FIFA.