Four European coaches short-listed for Black Stars technical adviser job, committee to decide today

Four European coaches have been shortlisted for the position for the Black Stars technical adviser with the decision over the choice to made on Thursday after a meeting.

Two Danish coaches Flemming Serritslev and Ove Pedersen as well as Serbian Milovan Rajevac and German Antoine Hey were selected by the three-man committee mandated to search for the adviser.

The three-member committee, comprising GFA vice-president Fred Crentsil (chairman), FA's technical director, Francis Oti-Akenten and former FA vice-president, Fred Pappoe, rejected Ben Koufie for the post.

Koufie, who was proposed by coach Kwesi Apppiah, was rejected on the grounds the grounds of his age as the 82-year-old cannot cope with the challenges of the job.

Already, 82-year-old Koufie, a former Chairman of the GFA between 2001 and 2005, has expressed his readiness to work with Appiah if given the opportunity but age counted against him.

This leaves ex-Black Stars coach Milovan Rajevac as the leading candidate for the post having coached the Black Stars to success at the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup.

Antoine Hey, who is the current technical director of the Libyan FA, looks to be the closest person to Rajevac in the African experience as he has already coached in Nigeria, Gambia, Kenya and Gabon.

Pedersen spent most of his coaching career in his native Denmark with the club Midtjylland but his coaching of several African players at the club as well as in Qatar will count to his advantage.

Serritslev, 67, is the least experienced in Africa but has spent time coaching in Iran and Velje in Denmark.

The move to hire a technical advisor, according to the GFA, was in compliance with an advice by the Ministry of Youth and Sports that the technical team of the Black Stars needed to be strengthened.

The technical adviser will work with Appiah to “steer the national team in the right direction” according to the Ghana Football Association.

The decision was taken by the GFA after the Black Stars failure to get past the group stages of the World Cup in Brazil.

Rajevac is seen as the most successful foreign coach to have worked in Ghana.

He lead the Black Stars to the final of the 2010 Nations Cup in Angola and later that year to the World Cup quarter-finals in South Africa.