Can fasting, prayer & good luck help Ghana’s World Cup bid?
Before the World Cup, the Ghanaian team is plagued with gloom and chaos. Ghana’s national football squad was in its lowest point at the beginning of 2022.
The outlook was gloomy and participation in the World Cup in Qatar was not likely after being eliminated from the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in the group stage and facing the possibility of a World Cup qualifying playoff against Nigeria.
The biggest risk was taken by the Ghana FA when they abruptly fired Milovan Rajevac and appointed former international Otto Addo as manager. Addo, who worked for the Borussia Dortmund development programme in Germany, had no prior experience in senior-level coaching and no assurances.
The Black Stars, who missed out on the 2018 World Cup, won the two-leg playoff against Nigeria on away goals, and it turned out to be a masterstroke. Things were looking good for Ghana only twelve years ago when they became the third African team to make it to the round of eight and just the second to advance to the knockout stages of consecutive World Cups.
The Black Stars, who made headlines in 2014 after flying $3 million in cash to Brazil to quell team unrest over unpaid bonuses, went out in the group stage and stopped that momentum.
There has been a noticeable decline since the team advanced to the 2015 AFCON final. That was stopped by making it to the World Cup, but six months later, some of the lustre has faded.
The Black Stars’ chances in Qatar have already been clouded by a variety of issues, and ahead of the World Cup, there is a somewhat downbeat atmosphere on the streets of Accra and Kumasi.
According to Ghanaian journalist Saddick Adams for Al Jazeera, “many are not too enthusiastic about the fact that the Black Stars do not seem to have a team, even after so many months and competing in qualifying.” Since the terrible AFCON campaign in January, there has been resentment.
Ghana has won just two of their six games since barely defeating Nigeria in March—against Madagascar and Nicaragua. Between those matches, they drew with Chile and Central African Republic and lost badly to Japan and Brazil by scores of three goals each. These poor results, along with the sluggish, uninspired performances that went along with them, and some perplexing personnel decisions, have raised doubts about Addo’s capacity to lead the Black Stars.
His unwillingness to dedicate himself to the national team full-time has been interpreted by many as a sign of a lack of dedication and investment on his part, which has caused many to question whether he will still be involved with Borussia Dortmund. African football specialist Mark Gleeson claims that Ghana FA is to blame for this confusion.
“The fact that they had a coach who has no senior level coaching experience, and who looked to have been hired on a whim and a prayer basically, and then kept him after going past Nigeria, which as you know was a completely lucky result. That is beyond unbelievable in my opinion,” Gleeson said to Al Jazeera. “That simply demonstrates how unprofessional the FA’s decision-making is, and I think they’re going to suffer for that, which is really unfortunate.” Gleeson continued.
Can fasting, prayer & good luck help Ghana’s World Cup bid?
There is a strong possibility that Ghana might collapse in Qatar given the surrounding noise. Given their popularity, their future prospects are far from promising. They will play against some of the best attacking players in the world of football, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani, and Son Heung-Min (injury allowing), among others, in Portugal, Uruguay, and South Korea. It’s really depressing. Group H is not as daunting as it appears on paper, according to journalist Solace Chukwu, assuming Ghana had their act together.
Uruguay is currently going through a transitional period. Portugal is being held back by Fernando Santos’ negativity as well as an ageing defence; Korea is always competitive. This group has a lot of potential. It’s unfortunate that Ghana is currently so disorganized. The Ghana FA’s most recent pregame move, the declaration of two days of prayer and fasting, has drawn a lot of skepticism. In Ghana, 71% of people identify as Christians, 17% as Muslims, and a small percentage practise traditional indigenous religions.
Ghana’s World Cup build up should be on Netflix. So much drama
— Godfred Akoto Boafo (@eastsportsman) November 9, 2022
The fervour of ordinary faith is overstated by those statistics, but it is unclear whether turning to God will actually improve the Black Stars’ chances in Qatar.
