After Ghana failed to qualify for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament, former Black Stars management committee member Ernest Thompson has called on the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to fire Otto Addo and his technical staff.
The senior national team’s failure to qualify for the tournament, which will be held in Morocco next year, has raised questions over the 47-year-old’s future.
Ghana ended at the bottom of Group F with three draws and three losses after six games played, with 0 wins.
To decide on the former Borussia Dortmund talent coach’s future, the GFA Executive Council will convene on Wednesday, November 27.
Thompson criticized the players and the technical staff in an interview with Joy Sports, calling the Black Stars’ current situation intolerable.
“For me, the problem is two-fold. We have a bad technical team. They are not up to the task if they are to lead us in the next five years because Ghanaians don’t have the patience to wait for a coach who is young and still learning,” he stated.
“Otto Addo has done his best. At times, you promote people to their level of competence, and beyond that, they cannot do much. He’s done his best, and I think at this stage, he and his technical team should go,” Thompson said emphatically.
In addition, Thompson voiced worries about the Black Stars’ lack of cohesion, characterizing the group as a collection of individuals rather than a unified whole.
“That team you’re calling the Black Stars is not a team; it is a group of individuals who are very conflictual. There’s so much conflict in that team. Kurt [Okraku] and the rest should take responsibility for keeping things to themselves,” he noted.
He went further to highlight the extent of the division among the players, claiming that spiritualism and internal conflicts are undermining the team’s performance.
“There’s spiritualism in that team; there’s conflict in that team. They only come and stand on the pitch as if they are together. It’s not a football team we have there; it’s a group of individuals who are highly conflicted,” he said.
