The Ghana Black Stars have decided to prepare for their first World Cup Finals in Austria, rather than Portugal as originally planned.

Ghana had planned to base themselves in the southern Portuguese city of Faro from May 14 but Austrian officials have offered them free use of their training facilities.

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) confirmed the move after Fred Pappoe, the vice-president of the GFA and assistant coach Silas Tetteh visited Austria last week.

“When you compare the facilities in the two countries, we are getting a bit more in Austria than in Portugal,” GFA spokesperson Randy Abbey said.

“For example, we would only get one pitch in Portugal while we are getting three in Austria.

“And we are getting some extras in several other facilities.”

“The most important thing is that we are getting sponsorship to take care of the costs of using the training facilities.”

The Black Stars, coached by Ratomir Dujkovic, have arranged three World Cup warm-up friendly matches in Germany, London and Glasgow between 26 May and 4 June and intend to use their base to travel to friendly matches.

Ghana have been drawn in Group E alongside Italy, the Czech Republic and the USA.

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