Ace sports journalist Saddick Adams, alias Sports Obama, has opined that attributing the poor performance of the Black Stars to the incompetence of coach Otto Addo alone is a myopic view of a multifaceted situation.
Saddick Adams argues in an interview with GhanaWeb’s Emmanuel Enin on the Sports Check program that while Otto Addo may have his limitations as a coach, the Black Stars’ problems go beyond him.
He chronicled the years of mismanagement that have culminated in the poor state of Ghana football and chided the leadership of the Ghana Football Association for not putting in place measures to stem the tide.
Saddick Adams noted that instead of instituting measures that will result in long-term solutions, the GFA has consistently overlooked the bigger picture and focused on achieving short-term goals by firing and hiring coaches.
He advanced the argument that the fortunes of the team would have witnessed an upward turn if the lack of a world-class coach was the problem facing the team as the Black Stars have in recent years been handled by two top coaches in Avram Grant and Chris Hughton.
“The Black Stars is not a problem of Otto Addo. We’ve brought six coaches in five years and we’ve not resolved it. The team is also not a club side, so you cannot keep getting players into the team like you are going to the market to purchase players like the clubs do.
“In the national team, you make do with the players. We have a coaching problem, but it’s not with the Black Stars. If the problem was the Black Stars, the six changes would have at least occasioned some changes.
“Ghana has never appointed a top-class coach, bar Avram Grant, who could not win. I would include Chris Hughton because he coached in the Premier League, so we’ve done both. We’ve gone for both mediocre and world-class coaches. It is purely managerial and a lack of talent pool,” he said.
In four matches played in the 2025 AFCON qualifiers, the Black Stars have drawn two and lost two. They are in third place, while Angola are leading the group with ten points, and Sudan are in second place with seven points.
Niger are at the bottom of the group with a single point, which they got from their home match against the Black Stars.
Ghana will face Angola on November 15 in Luanda before hosting Niger on November 18 to close the qualifying series.
Watch the latest edition of Sports Check with Saddick Adams below:
EK