Hughton Blames Ghana’s Coaching Carousel and Funding Gaps for Black Stars’ Decline

Hughton’s tenure with Ghana was short-lived.

The former Ireland international, who won two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup with Tottenham Hotspur and also coached Newcastle, Norwich and Brighton in the Premier League, was appointed by the Ghana Football Association as technical director in February 2022 before moving into the head coach role in February 2023. He was dismissed in January 2024 after failing to lead Ghana past the group stage of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.

His dismissal came during a period in which Ghana endured another disappointing campaign, raising questions about the country’s increasingly unstable approach to African football management.

Hughton is one of five men who have taken charge of the Ghana national team in the past six years. Charles Akonnor, Milovan Rajevac, Otto Addo and Queiroz are the other coaches to have held the role, with Addo having two separate spells in charge.

Kwesi Appiah, now the coach of Sudan, lasted 33 months during his second stint with the Black Stars between April 2017 and January 2020, the longest spell by any coach since Fred Osam-Duodu in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

With Ghana facing the real danger of missing out on a second successive Africa Cup of Nations final, Hughton believes under-investment and what he describes as “fearsome” competition across the continent have worsened the situation.

“Many years ago Ghana were at a level that was, if not the best team in Africa, certainly right up there,” said the 67-year-old.

“You’ve seen the emergence of so many other good African nations that have made the competition levels that much higher.

“Some of these countries have so many other problems, but I do think that there needs to be an injection of government money into the structure and into the system.”

Hughton feels more must be done to encourage the development of football in the West African nation.

“In Ghana, the local game that used to produce so many good players, the support level is not there,” he said.

“They’re playing on pitches that are not of a great level and the supporters are not coming.

“The supporters in Ghana love the Black Stars most, first and foremost, and of course the Premier League is massive there, but there isn’t that support for the local game that there used to be.

“I think the government needs to do more as regards putting money into the infrastructure.”

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