Sports Ministry Steps In as Ghana Faces Second Straight AFCON Collapse

Ghana’s national football team faces the serious prospect of missing a second consecutive Africa Cup of Nations tournament after a disastrous start to their 2027 qualifying campaign prompted direct government intervention in the management of the Black Stars.

The Black Stars currently sit at the bottom of Group C without a single point. Their campaign suffered back-to-back defeats: a 2-0 loss away to Ivory Coast, followed by a shocking 4-2 defeat against The Gambia at the Accra Sports Stadium after surrendering an early two-goal lead.

The damaging string of results quickly culminated in the departure of head coach Carlos Queiroz. In response to the growing crisis, the Ministry of Sports and Recreation held a high-level meeting with the Ghana Football Association (GFA) on Friday, October 2, where both governing bodies agreed on seven key measures to restructure the national team setup.

Under the new directives, the Black Stars technical team and all existing national team management committees have been dissolved.

In their place, a new National Technical Management Committee will be formed, consisting of two government-appointed experts and two nominees from the GFA. Crucially, the GFA has been instructed not to appoint Queiroz’s successor without explicit consultation with this committee.

Further measures include establishing separate administrative committees for men’s and women’s football, reinstating state-provided accommodation for the head coach, consolidating youth setup structures with state involvement in technical appointments, and drafting a FIFA-standard cooperation agreement to formalize joint decision-making.

Having failed to qualify for the 2025 finals in Morocco, Ghana must quickly turn its fortunes around when qualifying action resumes next month at the Accra Sports Stadium.