President of the Ghana Football Association, Kurt E.S Okraku has defended the Ghana Football Association’s decision to part ways with coach Otto Addo even though it’s something they never anticipated to happen before the 2026 World Cup.
The former Borussia Dortmund trainer was sacked mainly after Ghana’s disappointing performances in the March international window, where the team suffered defeats to Austria and Germany.
Speaking in an interview on 3Sports, the GFA President explained that both he and the Executive Council believed it was the right time to part ways with the coach, insisting they stood firmly by that decision.
Okraku noted that while the decision was widely questioned at the time, there were underlying factors that influenced their stance, some of which were not publicly known.
“I never believed that I had to let the coach go at that time. And we never believed, as an ExCo, that we had to let the coach go at that time. And we stay with that position.”
“We’ve all done football at various levels, and sometimes there are auxiliary reasons why certain decisions have to be taken or not to be taken. Some of these reasons are not available to a lot of people.”
“But I look back and I’m happy that we took that decision. At the end, we qualified for the Mundial with the same gaffer, and I don’t regret it at all.”
However, following recent results, Addo has since been relieved of his duties, with the GFA now considering several candidates including Hervé Renard, Tom Saintfiet and Kwesi Appiah to take over the Black Stars.
Ghana will open their World Cup campaign against Panama on June 18, before facing England and Croatia in Group L.
