From Ghana’s shocking Afcon exit to Sudan’s glorious qualification to Morocco’s 100% excellent record in the AFCON qualifiers.
With the Ghana Premier League set to return this weekend, sports administrator and writer, Ahmed Mustapha Ibn_Andam picks out the top three things he noticed during the open-ended AFCON qualifiers from the Ghanaian viewpoint.
1. Ghana’s shocking AFCON exit.
Four-time AFCON champions had a shameful and shocking exit from the AFCON 2025 which will be hosted in Morocco 2025 on 21st December 2025 to
18th January 2026. The last time the African Giants Ghana couldn’t qualify for the AFCON was in 2004.
After the Anas expose in 2018 the performance of Black Stars, other national teams and club football has been declining which is alarming. In recent years Ghanaians have shown their anger at the Ghana Football Association by organizing protests calling on the government and stakeholders to help solve Ghana’s football problems but was to no avail.
Pundits and Ghanaians immediately after Ghana’s exit from the 2025 AFCON qualifiers called for the resignation of GFA officials and Coach Otto Addo. Former coach of the Black Stars C.K Akkunor voiced his concern about GFA officials interfering with player selection and many others which the GFA officials have refused to comment on. GFA officials blame players for their commitment to the Black Stars which they are the sole cause of the decline of Black Stars and Ghana club football. As a Ghanaian football fan and football club administrator, there is no hope for Ghana football if GFA officials don’t resign or make things right.
2. Coach Kwesi Appiah’s Sudan Defying odds to qualify for AFCON 2025.
The Ghanaian Coach Kwesi Appiah has led the Sudanese senior national team to qualify for AFCON 2025 and also has the Sudanese team leading in their World Cup qualifiers ahead of giants like Senegal and D. R Congo. A civil war between two major rival factions of the military government of Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allies (collectively the Janjaweed coalition) under the Janjaweed leader Hemedti, began during Ramadan on 15 April 2023. This turned Sudan into a war-torn place and on the day Sudan qualified to AFCON 2025 that is on the 18th of November 2024 at least 61,000 people were killed in the capital Khartoum alone where 26,000 were as a result of the violence. During the same time over 7.7 million civilians have been internally displaced, and over 2 million people have fled to other countries as refugees. Against all these odds Coach Kwesi Appiah qualified the Sudanese national team to AFCON 2025 in Morocco next year. What he has done has earned him the nickname Sughanese meaning Sudanese Ghanaian. He has become a national hero in Sudan as he brought smiles and happiness to the faces of Sudanese people. This has united the country in many ways as we saw the fans of the two top clubs in Sudan that is Al Hilal FC and Al-Merreikh FC in their last game against Angola holding hands together, singing and waving flags with the V inscription sign signaling victory.
Perhaps this provides an opportunity for those suffering to forget about the war that it has. The Sudanese national team received massive support from the military groups, also people from political parties in Sudan have a common reason to be one people which is the glorious success that Kwesi Appiah led the Sudanese national team to. With the joy on the faces of Sudanese people football might be the reason to unite Sudanese people and stop the war. The term across social media in Sudan was “Celebrate today and leave tomorrow”. At least because of Kwesi Appiah’s success with the Sudanese team, the Sudanese people will smile again.
3. Morocco completes AFCON qualifiers with a 100% record. What can Ghana learn from Morocco?
The Atlas Lions of Morocco qualified for AFCON 2025 by winning all their six matches, scoring 26 goals, and conceding only 2 goals. In 1976 Morocco won the AFCON and since then their best performance has been runners-up in 2004.
Currently, Morocco football is doing great from all their national teams to their club football, and their administrative prowess and strategic investment into football with accountability has made them win the race to host AFCON 2025 set to begin on 21st December 2025 to 18th January 2026. Morocco having done many things right saw their team qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. In Qatar during the World Cup, they performed very well and, equally had impressive performances in Paris during the Olympic games. This has led to FIFA referring to Morocco as a rising power in football and perhaps the Ghana Football Association can learn from Morocco.
By: Ahmed Mustapha Ibn_Andam
