We will navigate our Black Stars to desired levels – Kurt Okraku pledges after 2021 AFCON collapse

Ghana Football Association (GFA) president, Kurt Okraku has pleaded for calmness amidst the pain after the Black Stars were crashed out of the ongoing 2021 Africa Cup of Nations [Cameroon] in Cameroon.

The Black Stars after failing to win the continental title after 40 years were tasked to win the 33rd edition of the AFCON but their campaign shockingly ended in an embarrassment.

Ghana were eliminated after losing 3-2 to debutant Comoros in their final game.

In a group consisting of Morocco, Gabon and Comoros, Black Stars, shockingly, finished bottom with only one point, scored three goals and conceded five.

The embarrassment has led to calls for Milovan, only reappointed in September, to be sacked while some want changes at the GFA too, but Okraku has urged Ghanaians to stay calm.

“I share in the pain of the entire country. I share the pain of everybody who follows the Ghanaian sport. At this moment, everybody has the right to speak or to share their pain but at the same time, it’s a moment that we need cool heads to navigate our Black Stars to the levels that we desire,” Kurt Okraku told TV3.

“The journey to make the Black Stars champions did not start two years ago under my leadership but it started since the last time Ghana won the Afcon [in 1982]. The journey has been ongoing, since the last time we won the Afcon, we haven’t been able to win. Don’t forget being a finalist is not being a winner so we have never been able to win.

“We have been trying to look for the solution but the solution is not what was displayed by the team in Cameroon but [it] behoves on all of us to stay together as a unit, family, look inside us, look within us, look externally to find how our Black Stars can win that enviable trophy again. It is our responsibility.”