Accra, April 19 (IANS) Ghana will host the 3rd African amputee soccer tournament in October. It is expected to attract 12 teams from the continent, Xinhua reported Monday.

The tournament is organized by the Amputee Football Federation of Africa (AFFA). Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have already confirmed their participation.

Cornelius Adjah-Cofie, national president of the Ghana disabled sports, said his association was making frantic preparations to beat the deadline stipulated for the scheduled tournament.

"The signs of hosting a successful amputee soccer tournament are positive," he told Xinhua in an interview on phone.

The African amputee tournament serves as a qualifying exercise for the 31st amputee World Cup in Japan next year.

The Black Challenge, nickname of Ghana's national amputee team, won the first African Cup in Sierra Leone in 2007 and placed 6th at the last World Cup in Argentina after a historic quarter-final berth, the first by any African nation in the 60-year history of the games.