George Amoako, an Executive Council member of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), expressed his belief that Ghanaians have a strong desire to see the Black Stars qualify for the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
In an interview with Takoradi-based WestGold Radio broadcaster George Kuntu Blankson, Amoako expressed his disappointment with Chris Hughton’s performance as the Black Stars head coach.
He shared his observations from the team’s matches against Madagascar and Angola, stating that he was not impressed with their overall performance under Hughton’s leadership.
“He [Chris Hughton] has not been impressive, I watched the Madagascar game and went to Angola against Central African Republic, but in all the games we’ve played under him, I’m not impressed”, George Amoako said.
Looking to the future, Amoako emphasized the importance of qualifying for the next AFCON in Ivory Coast. Additionally, he stressed the significance of securing a spot in the World Cup, as Ghanaians eagerly anticipate the opportunity to travel to America to support their national team.
However, he acknowledged that achieving these goals will require substantial efforts and improvements from the team.
“Let’s pray we qualify for the next AFCON in Ivory Coast and as for the World Cup, we have to qualify and go to America because Ghanaians want to travel to America but so far a lot have to be done”, he added.
The 2026 World Cup qualifying series is scheduled to begin on November 13, 2023.
Ghana have been drawn in Group I together with Mali, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Comoros, and Chad.
The nine groups in Africa will engage in a round-robin format, playing home and away matches. The group winners will secure automatic qualification for the FIFA World Cup 2026. The four best runners-up from the groups will then participate in a play-off stage to determine the representative from CAF for the FIFA play-off tournament.
The FIFA play-off tournament will involve one team from each of FIFA’s six confederations, excluding UEFA, along with an additional team from the host confederation (Concacaf).
Two seeded teams will compete against the winners of the first two knockout matches involving the four unseeded teams, with the ultimate aim of securing a World Cup berth.
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