Govt summons Ghana FA over Black Stars poor AFCON show
Ghana has summoned the country’s Football Association (FA) leadership over, the national team’s early AFCON exit at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations here in Cameroon.
The four time African champions, currently ranked the eight strongest team in Africa, were eliminated from the continental fete after falling 2-3 to debutants Comoros in their last Group ‘C’ fixture on Tuesday at the Roumde Adjia stadium in Garoua.
And in a statement on Wednesday, Hon Mustapha Ussif, the Sports Minister, said the entire country was “extremely disappointed with the abysmal performance and early exit” of the team from the competition.
He explained the ministry is particularly disappointed with the team’s performance given that they were provided “all the needed logistical and financial support” for preparation and participation in the continental soccer showpiece.
“The ministry [of Youth and Sports] has summoned the Ghana Football Association (G.F.A) leadership to an emergency meeting to urgently discuss and take decisions aimed at salvaging the performance of the Black Stars especially in the next set of game,” minister Mustapha Ussif said in the statement. The said meeting, the statement announced will hold on Friday January 21.
In their earlier group games, the Black Stars lost 0-1 to Morocco in the opener before conceding a late equaliser against Gabon in Matchday 2 leaving them with just a point from the two matches.
Morocco and Gabon drew in Yaounde and maintained their respective first and second positions on the group and advance to the playoffs, while Comoros who were winless prior to the match against will have to wait till the end of the group stages to know if they are among best four third-placed teams to advance to the knockout stages.
Commenting on a Nigeria radio from the Ghanaian capital on Wednesday, journalist Akosua Amoo said the town mood in the capital city is gloomy following the early elimination of the team form the tournament. She said most football fans in the country are burdened with postmortem about what happened to their darling team.
“The pedigree of a team like Black Stars, we shouldn’t be losing to Comoros, we shouldn’t be struggling to make it out of the group stages. The AFCON is no longer 16 teams, it is 24 teams, so this is a bit pathetic,” she said.