Ghanaian football stakeholders have not held anything back from their disappointment after Ghana’s U23 side was eliminated from the U23 AFCON tournament.
Former Fulham midfielder Derek Boateng has made a strong claim about ownership of players in Ghana’s national teams.
The 40-year-old, who featured 47 times, for the West African nation and played at 2 FIFA World Cup tournaments (2006 and 2010), has revealed that some officials at the Ghana FA own players within the various national teams.
In his claims, he also tied the abysmal performances of the various Ghana national teams to such a scenario within the teams.
“The FA owns a lot of players in the national teams and that’s why we don’t perform. When CK Akonnor was there, the FA were telling him the kind of players he should call and when things didn’t go well they kicked him out,” he told Accra-based Joy FM.
Under the Kurt Okraku-led Ghana FA administration, Ghana has failed at major tournaments – Ghana exited the 2021 AFCON at the group with an abysmal performance, and the 2022 FIFA World Cup was no different as the team was eliminated at the group stage.
The Black Starlets, Ghana’s U17 side, failed to qualify for the 2023 U17 AFCON tournament while the U20 side also failed to book a ticket to the U20 AFCON tournament. Meanwhile, the Black Meteors were booted out of the U23 AFCON tournament in Morocco on Friday.
In June 2022, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) banned Ghana from competing in the next two editions of the U-17 Women’s World Cup African qualifiers due to age fraud.
