Astute Ghanaian lawyer Moses Foh Amoaning, a known football enthusiast has outlined issues that, when not well ironed out could hinder the Black Stars from securing qualification ahead of their opponents Nigeria in the final 2022 World Cup play-offs between the two West African football giants next month.
Ghana has been drawn against their fellow West African football giants and rivals, Nigeria in the last playoffs of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, with the first leg scheduled to take place on March 24 at the Cape Coast sports stadium and the second leg on March 27.
Using the the performance of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon as a yardstick, the Black Stars of Ghana appeared way far worse than one can imagine, recording their worst ever campaign at the AFCON, failing to progress beyond the group stage. The Super Eagles on the other side of the coin appeared better, winning all three matches at the group stage before losing out to Tunisia at the Round of 16 by slim margin.
Speaking on Metro TV’s “Good Evening Ghana”, Foh Amoaning stated that the issue of black magic accusations in the team (which he believes no longer an allegation but a proven fact) is pushing key players away, preventing them from accepting invitations to play for Ghana. The former Ghana Boxing Association Boss added, that the Black Stars team needs huge augmentation if the Ghana want to qualify ahead of Nigeria.
“We’ve had psychological problems in the team that was documented in 2013 after the Cup of Nations. The ‘juju’ thing was written in black and white, we’ve not sorted it, if we don’t it’s going to hurt us, and as I said, it’s pushing some good players away from the team”, Amoaning outlined.
“Imagine this Black Stars with Salisu [Mohammed], Tariq Lamptey, with Duncan, with the Inaki brothers, imagine the Black Stars with all these players, imagine the quality that we will have because we don’t even have the people to put the ball in the net”, he added.
According to the law lecturer, the Black Stars do not even have a clinical striker of Asamoah Gyan’s quality to carry the team on when it matters most and when the going gets tough. He says, until these problems are fixed, Ghana will have no chance qualifying to the World Cup ahead of Ghana.
“We don’t even have a striker, so we can talk about as many coaches as possible and all these funny things that you’ve done over night. If we don’t get good players and they assemble the same players where are we going to get to?”, he questioned.
Foh Amoaning further called for unity among the GFA top brass and Government to push the Black Stars with common agenda. He hopes Ghana qualifies though.
“I hope we qualify but the way we are going about it, I am not too sure we are going to qualify. If we don’t improve our team then we don’t have a chance against Nigeria; if we do then at least we’ll give ourselves a fighting chance”, he stressed.
