Betway

By Aristo Dotse

After that brutally disastrous campaign of failure to qualify for the next African Cup of Nations (AFCON), Morocco 2025, it’s time again to continue the campaign for the biggest stage of all – the FIFA World Cup – for the 2026 edition in the tri North American countries of Canada, Mexico and the United States. And the spirit and feel-good factor for it seem very high, presumably owing to the unacceptably disappointing Morocco 2025 AFCON failure.

2025 AFCON disaster

Ghana, the four-time champions of Africa as AFCON winners, have failed few times in not qualifying for the biggest African football showpiece, the most recent one until now being 20 years earlier in not making the tournament at Tunisia 2004. But this current failure of last year is such a brutal disaster that the Black Stars failed to win even a single match in a total of six qualifying games in placing last in a group that contained moderate African countries like Angola, Sudan and Niger. This abysmal showing, which is unprecedented in the history of the Black Stars, followed the disappointingly bad first and second round exits at the three most recent tournaments at Cote d’Ivoire 2023, Cameroon 2021 and Egypt 2019 respectively.

The Black Stars performances in the last six years, particularly the 2025 AFCON qualification disgrace, and related results are highly unacceptable, and it, as a matter of urgency and need, has positively made qualification to the next World Cup even more important to not only the team, Ghana Football Association and an entire nation that highly expect nothing more than victories in the remaining World Cup qualifying matches and subsequent qualification, starting with Chad on Friday in Accra.

2026 World Cup qualification

Interestingly, in the midst of the disastrous Nations Cup campaign, which simultaneously coincided with running of the World Cup campaign, the Black Stars have so far had quite a good run in the race to 2026 FIFA World Cup. Unlike the AFCON qualifiers, the team is very importantly in a good situation on the road to North America after four matches, currently third on the table with just a point behind the group leaders Madagascar who have played a game more and who Ghana will play next in Morocco on Monday after facing Chad.With only the group winner progressing to Canada, Mexico and the United States next year, the big expectation now is that Ghana will overcome both Chad and Madagascar in this double header window of the qualifying campaign to take the all-important lead in the group ahead of Madagascar, Comoros, Mali, Central African Republic and Chad, and eventually pick up the only slot as one of nine African countries for the 48-team World Cup.

Black Stars changes and new spirit around the team

Possibly, Ghana’s good standing in the group is the biggest reason why the GFA, despite changes in the Black Stars management team and back-room technical staff, refused to part ways with the team’s coach, Otto Addo, who, in spite of supervising such a bad record in the 2025 AFCON qualifiers, has been able to see the Stars on a right path on the journey to North America.

This GFA decision not to sack Addo, a former Ghana international midfielder who played in the country’s first World Cup appearance in his native Germany in 2006, was one against the popular Ghanaian opinion of letting Addo go. But the Kurt Okraku-led football association think otherwise in believing that, despite this AFCON disaster, Otto, owing to the Stars’ results so far in the World Cup campaign, can lead the team to a successive qualification after that sweet success over Nigeria in the final hurdle for the team to qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup as a care-taker manager of the team.

Interestingly again, the GFA, in the bid to qualify for 2026 to atone for the AFCON disaster, has brought in Winfried Schafer, the German AFCON winner with Cameroon in 2002, as the technical advisor of the team, and Ghana Under 20 coach Desmond Ofei as an assistant coach, to augment and strengthen the technical team. Also in as goalkeepers’ trainer is Fatau Dauda, another former international who was the Black Stars number one keeper at the Brazil 2014 World Cup.

Also, the team’s management team has brought in new personalities in the shape of Dr. Randy Abbey – chairman of the management committee – and Stephen Appiah as vice chairman. These new inclusions, especially in the team’s management personnel, has enhanced the spirit around the team and rekindled memories of qualification for Ghana’s successful first World Cup qualification campaign. Abbey and Appiah both played significant parts in qualification for Germany 2006 as the GFA spokesman and Black Stars star player and captain respectively. They were part of that campaign which also included Otto himself and current assistant coach John Paintsil as key players of the Black Stars quite successful run in Germany.

Additionally, seeing another key member, star striker Asamoah Gyan, who scored Ghana’s first ever World Cup goal in that tournament in Germany, and former international Anthony Baffoe join the team in an unofficial capacity in a very hearty mood in creating a friendly atmosphere around the team during the their preparation for Chad and subsequently Madagascar on the resumption of the 2026 World Cup campaign is not only refreshing to see but also hugely inspiring to the current players.

Thus, all of a sudden, the Black Stars seem to be in high spirit with a feel-good factor all around in the team’s camp to emulate the feat of qualifying for the World Cup following immediate failure to qualify for the AFCON. It happened in 2006 after the Tunisia 2004 absence and it can and should happen again for the 2026 World Cup after this disastrous absence from the Morocco 2025 party. The presence of some of the key actors of the Germany 2006 memories around the team and the new spirit it has brought at this present time should help a great deal in achieving the big 2026 dream with victories over Chad and Madagascar for the mean time.

Credit: Soccernet newspaper

www.sports24ghana.com

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR