World Cup playoff: Black Stars in disarray

All is not settled in the Ghana Football Association over the appointment of coaches to oversee the 2022 FIFA World Cup playoff against Nigeria in March.

Only a few days back, the Ghana Football Association communications director Henry Asante-Twum rejected claims his outfit had settled on former Brighton & Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton as new Black Stars coach.

According to ghanasoccer.com, the top candidate for the Ghana job, alongside Borussia Dortmund assistant coach Otto Addo, media reports recently claimed the ex-Newcastle United boss has won the race to lead the Stars, beating off competition from Addo.

The GFA has not hidden their desire to hand the latter the job, but leading members of the Government of Ghana believe Hughton is the best man.

“My last conversation with the [GFA] president [Kurt Okraku] was that the talks [with Otto Addo for a possible takeover of the Black Stars] have been positive, but it comes with certain conditions as well,” Twum had told Joy FM.

“Yes, the FA appoints, but the government takes care of the expenses and what have you, so you need to come back and engage the government and see if you would be at par in terms of decision making. From there you can progress. I don’t know about any such decision [regarding Chris Houghton’s appointment].

“These are things we read in the media every day. You wake up to stories in the press that the government is trying to impose a coach on the FA – I don’t remember sitting in any such meeting since our last meeting with the minister for sports which called for the dismissal of the technical team and also the dismissal of the management committee: that has been our last engagement as a body.

“The ExCo [GFA Executive Committee] takes responsibility for such decisions, they have the powers of appointment so they will need to convene a meeting.”

Meanwhile, former Ghana international Augustine Arhinful has criticized the newly formed technical team of the Black Stars.

The Ghana Football Association (GFA) on Wednesday after it Executive announced a newly constituted technical team of the Black Stars headed by Otto Addo, George Boateng and Mas-Ud Didi Dramani with former Brighton boss Chris Hughton as the Technical advisor.

The appointment is just for the World Cup play-offs in March against rivals Nigeria to be played between March 24-29, 2022.

A statement from the GFA on the appointment had read, “Former Newcastle United and Brighton and Hove Albion manager Chris Hughton has been appointed as Technical Advisor to the newly constituted Black Stars Technical team led by Otto Addo.

However, Augustine Arhinful has questioned why the GFA has appointed all these qualified coaches for just a game to be played between one week.

“If it is just for interim basis, we cannot appoint all these people for just a match that players will be around for just a week. We appoint all these people for the two matches to be played between 23-29th and after that what happens,” he queried in an interview on Happy FM.

“My biggest problem is put someone there who will do proper scouting and select the right materials for the Black Stars”, he added.