ghana’s minister of sports and recreation, kofi adams, has expressed concerns over the ghana football association’s (gfa) decision to retain otto addo as head coach of the black stars despite the team’s failure to qualify for the 2023 africa cup of nations (afcon) in morocco.
the 49-year-old coach faced intense criticism after the black stars failed to secure a single victory in the afcon qualifiers, with many football fans demanding his dismissal. however, the gfa opted to keep him, reinforcing the backroom staff in preparation for the 2026 world cup qualifiers.
in an interview with 3sports, adams revealed that he had raised concerns during a meeting with the gfa leadership and members of the black stars’ technical team.
“the fa brought the coach [otto addo] and other persons [technical team] to introduce them to me, and at that meeting, i raised all those issues [about their decision to keep the coach despite his failure to qualify for afcon in morocco],” he said.
while the gfa defended their decision, adams admitted he remains unconvinced by their reasoning.
“they [gfa] gave me an answer. am i satisfied? i will say time will tell, but i had my concerns, and those concerns, i registered them [at the meeting with gfa],” he added.
as a member of parliament for the buem constituency, adams acknowledged that although he was not pleased with the situation, the timing of the 2026 fifa world cup qualifiers made it difficult to implement immediate changes.
“but i think at this moment, and at the time that i had become the minister, the issue is we were too close to these [world cup 2026] qualifiers [against chad and madagascar], and so the issue of changes should not be what should be on the table. that should be the last thing on the table,” he said.
“and so the issue on the table now is how to prepare the team for the task ahead of us.”
he emphasized that sacking otto addo before the qualifiers would have left the team without leadership, disrupting their preparations.
“because if the agenda is to go and sack the head coach — if we sacked the head coach, who was going to take over immediately? you’re now going to be hunting for a new coach, and that may take you the entire period,” he stressed.
for now, the focus remains on supporting the current technical team to ensure success in the upcoming games, though he hinted at the possibility of reviewing the situation later.
“so it’s better to rally what you have, work with it, and make sure that you achieve success. if we have to revisit that story, we will visit it,” he said.
the minister also highlighted recent additions to the technical team, including former cameroon coach winfried schäfer, who has joined as technical director.
“there has been some beefing up. winfried schäfer has been added as technical director, and a few more other areas have been improved. let’s see what it also injects into the discipline of play.”
ghana will take on chad and madagascar on march 21 and march 24, respectively, in the matchday five and six fixtures of the world cup qualifiers.