Outspoken football coach Joseph Emmanuel Sarpong has said it’s not prudent for much talked about Ghana manager Otto Addo to be sacked after a poor AFCON qualifying show which cost Ghana’s appearance in Morocco next year.
The Ghana Football Association’s Executive Council met last Wednesday to scrutinise the coach’s report on the catastrophic AFCON qualifying campaign, during which he failed to win a game in six matches.
In his reports, Otto Addo cited a lack of player commitment, injuries, poor captaincy handling, and late call-ups as chief reasons for the Black Stars’ shambolic performance in the qualifiers from September to November 2024.
Many have called for the head of the head coach. Still, the experienced former Liberty Professional’s manager opined that the ExCo knows that Otto Addo cannot qualify Ghana for the World Cup, hence the reason to maintain him.
“If you sack him, it will disrupt the World Cup qualifying series so in the interim he must charge to continue”, he told Ahotor FM.
When quizzed whether he is in sync with the ExCo’s decision to retain Otto Addo, Shapiro as he is affectionately called stated the ExCo members know Ghana can’t qualify for the Mundial after failing to secure a place at the AFCON in Morocco.
“Yeah, because they know we can’t qualify for the World Cup and we have signed a contract with you to lead the country and you have failed in AFCON, it’s left with one bar, who should come and inherit embarrassment?” he asked.
He added, “So you could not qualify. He needs to continue, and if we fail in all of this, then we will find another coach.”
Responding to how best to solve the captaincy issue in the Black Stars, there should be what he termed as a national captain.
He opined, “The coach chooses the captain, but we have a national captain; there’s no need to change the captain.”
“He can be on the bench and still be a captain, you can’t just be changing captains. There’s inconsistency in captaincy”, he concluded.
Ghana, second to Comoros on the table, will now focus on qualification for the 2026 World Cup after missing out on the AFCON 2025.
Story: Bright_Jnr, Ahotor Sports Desk.
