The sacking of another Black Stars coach will not rescue Ghana football.
After six coaches in seven years, collapsing national teams, fading clubs and a domestic league struggling for relevance, the evidence now points beyond the dugout to a deeper crisis of governance, accountability and football development that the Ghana Football Association (GFA) can no longer explain away. Ghana football’s crisis has moved beyond the dugout.
The 4-2 collapse against The Gambia, Carlos Queiroz’s exit and the fury that followed have forced the GFA and the government towards a more fundamental question: who is accountable for the decline, and what reforms are needed to restore integrity, competitiveness and public trust?
Rescue mission
Yesterday, the decision-making Executive Council of the GFA met Sports and Recreation Minister, Kofi Adams, in a crunch encounter at his office aimed at finding a road map for rescuing the Black Stars and arresting the wider decline of the football enterprise.
But after years of diminishing international returns, changing another coach cannot become the default response to structural failure.
The Gambia defeat became a national reckoning. An angry supporter nearly confronted GFA President, Kurt Simeon-Okraku, in the VVIP lounge of the Accra Sports Stadium afterwards, a near-violent expression of frustration with a football system many believe has drifted badly off course.
Queiroz’s departure by mutual agreement 48 hours later was predictable after two straight losses, but it does not answer the deeper questions.
Ghana now face the possibility of missing a second successive AFCON unless results improve. The anger has produced calls for Mr Simeon-Okraku’s resignation or even dissolution of the FA structure.
Some demands may be impracticable, but the frustration is understandable. Ghana have fallen from regular AFCON semi-finalists to consecutive group-stage exits, then failed to qualify for the 2025 tournament.
Qualification for the last two FIFA World Cups softened the impact, but has not disguised regression.
Queiroz himself suggested as much after last Tuesday’s defeat. “The option to resign is the easiest decision. If it can change Ghana’s football situation, I will be the first to resign. But it won’t,” he said.
Coaching merry-go-round
His point was difficult to dismiss. In seven years under the current FA leadership, six coaches — Kwasi Appiah, Charles Akonnor, Milovan Rajevac, Otto Addo, Chris Hughton and Queiroz — have taken charge, roughly one per year, without sustained success despite substantial investment.
That record strengthens the argument that coaching is only part of the problem. There have also been allegations that elements within the FA leadership, including Simeon-Okraku, have influenced player selections or promoted personal interests.
Those claims require evidence, due process, and direct institutional answers. At yesterday’s meeting, government and the GFA agreed to form a joint committee to search for Queiroz’s successor. Greater state involvement in national teams funded by public money is logical.
But appointing another coach without confronting structural weaknesses risks another cosmetic intervention.
The evidence extends beyond the Black Stars. The Black Starlets, Black Satellites, Black Meteors and the CHAN team have all struggled to qualify consistently for major continental competitions.
At club level, the warning signs are equally stark. Medeama SC and Nations FC were eliminated at the first hurdle of the CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup respectively, reinforcing concerns about the Ghana Premier League. Ghanaian clubs, once formidable on the continent, now routinely struggle to reach group stages.
The domestic game has also lost much of its role as a reliable talent pipeline, while Ghana continues to struggle in CHAN, reserved for home-based players.
SWAG demands comprehensive reforms
The Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) wants a more radical response: a comprehensive review of national-team management, clear accountability at every level, transparent and merit-based appointment of coaches, and a serious revival of the domestic league as the foundation for player development.
The government, too, has a legitimate role. It should exercise firmer supervision over the national teams it funds, without crossing into unlawful interference or operational micromanagement.
Public money must be matched by accountability, transparent processes and results. That does not mean the current FA administration has achieved nothing. Private investment has increased, with stronger corporate sponsorship of the leagues and national teams.
The redevelopment of the Ghanaman Centre of Excellence at Prampram, investment in coaching education and broader capacity-building initiatives are significant gains.
But those advances will carry limited value unless Ghana rebuilds from the bottom up — juvenile and colts football, academies, domestic clubs, age-group national teams and, ultimately, the Black Stars.
That pathway must become more important than opportunistic recruitment of Europe-based dual nationals who emerge close to major tournaments but do not always demonstrate long-term commitment to Ghana’s football project.
The Gambia defeat therefore arrived as more than humiliation. It was a warning that Ghana football has reached a crossroads.
For Mr Simeon-Okraku and his Executive Council, the task is not simply to appoint another coach. It is to restore integrity, confidence and order to the governance structure; open the system to scrutiny; rebuild the domestic game; and bring even fierce critics into a credible reform process.
Without that institutional reset, another coaching change will only postpone the reckoning.
