Kwesi Appiah Compares Ghana to England After Tough Year in Football
- Former Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah has reacted to the Black Stars' failure to qualify for AFCON 2025
- The former Ghana international insists the West African heavyweight's absence at AFCON 2025 is a big deal
- Sudan will be making a return to the tournament after missing the 2021 and 2023 editions with Appiah leading the team
Kwesi Appiah has likened Ghana to England after the Black Stars failed to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations.
The year 2024 has been very difficult for Ghana in football, with the national team, the Black Galaxies, and the Black Starlets all failing to qualify for major international tournaments.
The Black Stars were also eliminated from the group stage of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.
Source: Getty Images
In the qualifiers for the 2025 tournament in Morocco, Ghana failed to record a win, losing three and drawing three matches.
Sudan and Angola picked the tickets in Group F to reach the competition ahead of the four-time African champions.
Appiah, who coaches the Sudanese national team, was also a member of the FA's Executive Committee but had to withdraw from the qualifiers.
In reacting to Ghana's failure, Appiah compared Ghana's football to England.
"I was an executive member of the Ghana FA, and while Ghana was involved with our group, I was told to step aside because of a conflict of interest, and I did," Appiah told the BBC.
"Once you are a professional, you look at where you're working. If Ghana is not rising up to the occasion, there's nothing I can do.
"I need to be 100% professional and make sure the country I'm coaching qualify [for] either the Afcon or the World Cup."
"Ghana is like England. If England does not qualify for Europe or the World Cup, it's a big, big issue," he said.
"Once you take that job, you need to add that pressure on top of it. Ghana not going to Afcon is a big, big, big deal."
Ghana's horrible year in football
The year began with the Black Stars travelling to Ivory Coast for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations with hopes of improving their performance from the 2021 edition.
But the Black Stars got off to a false start, losing 2-1 to Cape Verde in their opening group game. The team showed resilience in the 2-2 draw with Egypt, but after another stalemate and a dramatic 2-2 draw with Mozambique, Ghana was eliminated from AFCON 2023.
Coach Chris Hughton was fired and replaced by Otto Addo. Addo started brightly in the World Cup qualifiers, beating Mali and the Central African Republic.
However, in six games in the AFCON qualifiers, the former Borussia Dortmund player failed to win a single game, as Ghana missed out on AFCON 2025.
It was not only the Black Stars that struggled, the Black Galaxies, the Black Meteors and the Black Starlets all failed to qualify for their tournaments.
Sudan dents Ghana's AFCON qualification
Earlier, YEN.com.gh reported that Sudan defeated Ghana in Libya to end the Black Stars' hopes of qualifying for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
Second-half goals from Ahmed Mahmoud Mohamed and Mohamed Abdelrahman Yousif handed Kwesi Appiah's men an important victory.
The Black Stars subsequently drew against Angola and lost to Niger to miss out on the tournament in Morocco.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
