GFA goofed in appointing interim Black Stars coach for World Cup playoff games – Augustine Ahinful

Former Ghana international, Augustine Ahinful says the Ghana Football Association [GFA] goofed in their decision to name an interim Black Stars technical team for the 2022 World Cup playoff games.

The Executive Council last week named Otto Addo as the interim boss with assistance from Didi Dramani and George Boateng.

Former Newcastle United and Brighton boss, Chris Hughton is in the mix as the technical advisor for the new technical team.

But Ahinful says the country’s football governing body should have appointed a substantive coach to hit the ground running after Ghana’s abysmal performance at the just-ended Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Cameroun.

He added that the GFA should have considered the 2023 AFCON qualifiers in June before taking the decision to appoint an interim coach.

“So we have a caretaker coach for the two matches with Nigeria and then what next? There is an AFCON qualifier in June so why don’t you look at appointing someone who can use the Nigeria match to prepare the team for that,” he told Graphic Sports.

“These are some of the things they should have considered before going for an interim technical team,” he lamented.

Ahinful also questioned why a backroom staff was not named alongside the new appointments.

He wondered whether the coach would be asked to work with the immediate past backroom staff that were axed together with Coach Milo or a new one would be constituted.

“The entire backroom staff of Coach Milo was dissolved, so I want to know who are replacing them now?

“All these things must be cleared so they can concentrate on working to deliver victory for the country against Nigeria in March,” he insisted.

Ghana will host Nigeria at the Cape Coast Stadium on March 24 before travelling to Abuja for the return game on March 27.

The Black Stars are aiming to return to the Mundial for the fourth time having missed out in the last edition in Russia in 2018.