AFCON
Ghana Parliament summons Black Stars captain Andre Ayew over 2021 AFCON campaign
The foul smoke over Ghana’s poor showing at the lat Africa Cup of Nations has not settled. The Ghana Black Stars who are Nigeria’s final obstacle to the Qatar 2022 World Cup finished bottom of their group and ended with just one point making pundicts to riddicle the side as going to Cameroon to ‘make a point’
According to online publication in Accra, Ghanaweb, Black Stars captain, Andre Ayew is expected to appear before parliament to answer questions regarding the Black Stars’ campaign at the just concluded Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
According to information available to GhanaWeb, The Parliamentary Select Committee on Sports has already written to the Ghana FA to facilitate Andre Ayew’s appearance before the committee.
It is yet to be known when the player will make himself available to face the committee
It would be the first time in recent memory that a Black Stars captain would be appearing before the august house to answer questions after a tournament.
The closest thing to it was when some members of the Black Stars were made to testify after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil when two players were expelled from the team camp due to disciplinary issues.
Ghana had a poor showing at the 2021 AFCON and lost to lowly rated Comoros in the last game to finish bottom of the group.
It is the worst performance by the Black Stars in AFCON history and that has already led to the sacking of Coach Milovan Rajevac who was in charge of the team at the tournament.
The poor performance by the Black Stars has led to requests by persons in authority to have an inquest into the reasons for the team’s failure.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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