The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has appointed a five-member committee to search for and recommend a new head coach for the Black Stars.
The panel, announced by GFA Communications on Saturday, 3 October 2026, will be chaired by former GFA Vice-President Fred Pappoe.
Other members are Anthony Baffoe, General Secretary of the Professional Footballers Association of Ghana (PFAG) and a former Ghana international; Agbesi Dzakpasu (Esq.), a legal practitioner and football administrator; Stephen Appiah, former Black Stars captain; and Faisal Chibsah, a high-performance specialist.
The committee has been tasked with identifying, assessing and recommending the most suitable candidate for the vacant position. The GFA and the Ministry of Sports and Recreation have promised a transparent, merit-based process.
The vacancy follows the resignation of Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz on Thursday, 1 October 2026, after a poor September international window. Queiroz, who was reappointed on 2 September on a short-term deal, managed seven matches across two spells, recording one win, two draws and four defeats — a win rate of 14.3%. Ghana scored five goals and conceded 10.
His second stint collapsed after a 2-0 defeat to Côte d’Ivoire in Bouaké and a 4-2 home loss to The Gambia in Accra, despite Ghana leading 2-0 at half-time. The results left the Black Stars without a point from their opening two Group C matches in the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Queiroz described the Gambia defeat as “one of those days when everything went wrong.” “We conceded two goals very easily, and those two goals turned the story of the game around,” he said.
The departure continues a pattern of coaching instability. Since Kurt Okraku became GFA President in October 2019, the Black Stars have had six coaching appointments, with Otto Addo serving twice. Charles Akonnor, Milovan Rajevac, Chris Hughton and Addo all came and went, while Queiroz’s two spells lasted a combined seven matches. Under Okraku, Ghana has won 39.3% of its competitive matches, averaging 1.46 points per game — the lowest among seven GFA administrations studied.
The decision to publish the committee members’ names has drawn mixed reaction. Former Ghana international Yussif Alhassan Chibsah questioned whether transparency had come at too high a cost. “The GFA/Ministry would have created a perfect working environment devoid of unnecessary distractions and pressures on the committee members if their names were kept out of public domain,” he posted on X in response to Sports Minister Kofi Adams.
Names already linked to the role include Godwin Attram, a former Ghana international who joined the Black Stars technical team as an assistant in September; Ibrahim Tanko, Medeama head coach and former Black Stars assistant; and Hervé Renard, the current Côte d’Ivoire head coach.
The committee is expected to submit its report to the Ministry and the GFA by Friday, 9 October 2026. The new coach will inherit a side scheduled to face Somalia in a November double-header as Ghana seeks to revive its 2027 AFCON qualification campaign.
The GFA and Ministry said they aim to appoint “a competent coach capable of leading the Black Stars in their upcoming competitions.”
