Ghana’s Parliamentary Select Committee on Sports is preparing to summon the Ghana Football Association and the Minister of Sports and Recreation after the Black Stars opened their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign with two damaging defeats that left a four-time African champion bottom of Group C with no points, AhotorSports has learned.
Committee chairman Ernest Henry Norgbey, the Member of Parliament for Ashaiman, told Akoma 87.9 FM that lawmakers intend to question both the football authorities and the minister about what is going wrong with Ghanaian football, particularly the senior national team.
Norgbey said the committee has not yet formally investigated the recent results but plans to invite the GFA and the minister specifically to interrogate the state of the game. The remarks followed Ghana’s 4-2 collapse against The Gambia at the Accra Sports Stadium, a result that came only days after a 2-0 loss to Côte d’Ivoire in Bouaké.
The Black Stars had led The Gambia 2-0 inside half an hour through Ernest Nuamah and Felix Afena-Gyan before conceding four unanswered goals. It was the first time Ghana had conceded four goals in an AFCON qualifier and The Gambia’s first victory over Ghana in 33 years.
Those two results sit inside a longer slump. Ghana failed to qualify for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco after finishing last in a group with Angola, Sudan and Niger without a single win, the first such absence since 2004.
The team has now gone eight consecutive AFCON qualifying matches without a victory, stretching back to a win over the Central African Republic in September 2023. Across a wider eleven-match sequence the Black Stars have managed only one win, two draws and eight defeats.
Norgbey argued that the problems run deeper than the current coach. He described Carlos Queiroz as a capable coach in many respects and said sacking him now would not solve the underlying issues. Even appointing one of the biggest names in world football would fail, he suggested, if the same players and the same people who treat player selection as a commercial opportunity remained in place.
He alleged that some underperforming players continue to be selected so they can be marketed to clubs abroad. In his view, repeatedly changing coaches and leadership without addressing those structural questions only produces more of the same disasters. He also said sacking the sports minister is not the answer at this stage.
The committee chairman did not rule out more drastic government action later. He said he would not be surprised if the government eventually decided to dissolve the GFA and start again, pointing to similar steps taken in Nigeria, and he stressed the need for greater investment in sport. He added that even a two-year FIFA ban could theoretically be used for reconstruction, but he made clear he was not calling for that now. First the committee needs a clear picture of what is happening inside the national team camp.
The latest results have already produced sharp public and political reaction. Communications Minister Sam George called for the Black Stars to be disbanded and the GFA leadership removed, arguing that Ghana should accept a FIFA ban in order to rebuild properly.
Former sports minister Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye said the national team is “gone” and criticised what he called a superficial management style that papers over deeper problems. A former member of the Black Stars management committee claimed the committee never even met to consider the squad list for the latest qualifiers and described a complete disconnect between some GFA officials and the team’s management structure.
Several high-profile players, including Mohammed Kudus, Antoine Semenyo, captain Jordan Ayew and Baba Rahman, were unavailable through injury or fitness concerns, forcing Queiroz to reshape the squad.
GFA president Kurt Okraku has insisted that no player has deliberately refused a call-up during his tenure and that the withdrawals were genuine medical issues. Ghana did reach the knockout stage of the 2026 World Cup before losing to Colombia, but the AFCON qualifying campaign has exposed persistent weaknesses in converting leads, midfield control, defensive organisation and consistency.
The parliamentary invitation is intended to examine administration, selection processes, funding, development pathways and the working relationship between the GFA, the Sports Ministry and the technical staff.
Ghana still has four qualifiers left, including a November double-header against Somalia and March 2027 matches against Côte d’Ivoire at home and The Gambia away. Qualification remains mathematically possible but no longer straightforward. The committee’s planned hearings represent an attempt to force answers before another cycle of disappointment becomes the new normal.
