Carlos Queiroz and the Ghana Football Association mutually ended his second spell as Black Stars head coach on 1 October 2026, days after consecutive defeats left Ghana bottom of their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying group.
On 5 October, GFA Communications Director Henry Asante Twum stated that the lack of basic football infrastructure was one of the reasons the Portuguese coach decided to leave.
The infrastructure complaint
Speaking to Kessben FM as monitored by AhotorSports’ Bright Junior, Asante Twum said:
“One of the reasons why Carlos Queiroz has left his role is the lack of infrastructure in the country.” He added that Queiroz “was surprised to find out that the Black Stars do not have a camp base where the team trains” and “complained that he had never seen before that a national team does not have a camp base.”
Queiroz was particularly disappointed that the team trains at the same venue where it plays. “He believes that it affects the team and does not help in getting a proper pitch,” Asante Twum said, noting that the coach “gave a scientific basis for his reasons.” The GFA official linked the problem directly to venue shortages: “The situation is that we have only one approved stadium.”
That venue is the Accra Sports Stadium. Earlier in September the GFA had already confirmed it was the only facility in the country approved for the Black Stars’ AFCON 2027 qualifiers, and it had been closed for pitch rehabilitation work by Greengrass Technologies ahead of the home fixture against The Gambia.
Domestic football was also suspended there while the surface was brought up to CAF standards. Without a separate national-team training base, match pitches absorb the full load of preparation sessions, which Queiroz argued degrades surface quality and, in turn, performance.
Asante Twum indicated the GFA had intended to examine other options and invest in additional training pitches, but the coach ultimately chose to leave after the results. Discussions after the Gambia defeat covered personal, sporting and technical concerns; the association tried to persuade him to stay.
Queiroz’s own account
In the statement released by the GFA on 1 October, Queiroz wrote that both sides agreed termination was “the most appropriate course of action, with the interests of Ghana, the Black Stars and Ghanaian football above everything else.” He said he had arrived “determined to help build a stronger future for the Black Stars and support the development of the country’s talent,” but “despite our commitment and efforts, the necessary conditions were not fully established, and our recent performance added to the decision to bring this journey to an end.”
He thanked the GFA president, his technical staff and the players, and closed with the lines “Ghana comes first. The Black Stars come first. Ghanaian football comes first.”
Results that ended the second spell
Queiroz, 73, first took charge in April 2026 on a short-term deal to lead Ghana at the 2026 World Cup after Otto Addo’s exit. Ghana beat Panama, drew with England in the group stage and reached the round of 32, where they lost to Colombia. He stepped down on 5 July after the tournament, then was reappointed around 2–3 September for the AFCON qualifying campaign.
The return lasted roughly a month. On 24 September Ghana lost 2-0 away to Ivory Coast in Bouaké (Malick Yalcouyé and a Franck Kessié penalty). On 29 September they led 2-0 at the Accra Sports Stadium through Ernest Nuamah and Felix Afena-Gyan before collapsing 4-2 to The Gambia. The Black Stars sit bottom of Group C (Ivory Coast, Ghana, The Gambia, Somalia) with zero points from two matches. Across seven games in both spells, reports put Queiroz’s record at one win, two draws and four defeats.
Ghana are trying to return to the Africa Cup of Nations after missing the 2025 edition in Morocco, which ended a long sequence of appearances. The 2027 finals will be co-hosted by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The next qualifiers are a double-header against Somalia in October, both scheduled for the Accra Sports Stadium.
Other reported friction
Media accounts published around the resignation (not restated by the GFA in the 5 October comments) described additional grievances Queiroz raised in a debrief: his preference to arrive about ten days before camp, versus arriving only two days earlier because travel arrangements were late; a desire for the squad to stay at the Kempinski rather than the African Regent (with the Alisa Hotel reportedly avoided because of earlier unpaid bills); and discomfort over what he saw as outside influence on squad selection. These details remain attributed to journalistic sources rather than the official GFA explanation.
What follows
A five-member committee has been set up to identify a successor and is expected to submit recommendations to the Sports Ministry on 9 October. The GFA has said it will announce technical arrangements in due course. The episode has renewed public and political pressure over the state of Ghana’s senior-team facilities and the wider administration of the national team.
