AFCON: Ghana’s horror outing and the future of Milovan Rajevac, By Nathan Tetteh Gadugah

With the third and final world cup qualifier slated for March 2022, the only silver lining at least for now is that crucial meeting between the government and the FA. The government has not hidden its preference for a local coach and given the tone of the letter of summons to the FA. Something dramatic is expected to happen in the next few days, hopefully without a FIFA ban.

Armageddon came early in Ghana. The hallowed African football giant is united in grief and anger over a harrowing first-round exit in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament underway in Cameroon. Members of the Ghana Football Association, the country’s governing football body, have been summoned by the government and the Sports Ministry to an emergency meeting, to explain the “abysmal performance and early exit” from a tournament they were supposed to win.

The palpable anger of many Ghanaians is not because the Black Stars failed to win the trophy that has eluded them for the past four decades, but the manner of defeat and exit left a sour taste in the mouths of many who felt the investment in football, in the Black Stars, always came with pitiable returns and was also a gross lack of priority by the government. 

Hall of shame

In a Group that had Morocco (the only country in the group with an AFCON trophy to show), Gabon and Comoros, the Black Stars of Ghana were pounded and left comatose at the bottom, with two defeats and a draw. It was their worst ever AFCON outing in history, one without a win after three games but with a shocking 3-2 defeat by the Island of Comoros, which was making its AFCON debut. 

Two red cards in three games, the highest by any team; seven yellow cards, second only to Zimbabwe who had eight, in the first round of matches, Ghana bowed out in shame with the worse disciplinary record.

Local Or Foreign Dilemma? 

Three months to AFCON 2021, the GFA announced a divorce with its local coach, C.K. Akonnor, a former Black Stars captain who had been at the helm for barely 20 months and had qualified the team for the AFCON but wobbled in the World Cup qualifier. And when three times, the FA chair, Kurt Okraku said at a press conference, “this is not ma try ma kw3”, to wit, no more room for experimentation, each time with a pause, a pause of emphasis, slowly picking his words carefully, as if each word mattered, and it did, the verdict on Akonnor’s tenure and on local coaches was anything but encouraging and honourable. 

With that famous press conference by Chairman Kurt Okraku, Rajevac was outdoored to the Ghanaian public, who were vehemently divided over the FA’s choice. Rajevac managed to take Ghana to the third and final round of the World Cup qualifier but led a jerky AFCON preparation in faraway Dubai, with a 3-0 defeat to Algeria. A listless performance in Ghana’s Group C opener against Morocco meant the Stars would succumb to a 0-1 defeat.

In Milovan Rajevac he announced a saviour, a Serbian coach he said was “tried and tested,” one in whom he had absolute faith to break Ghana’s 40-year AFCON trophy drought. 

His faith in the Serbian was borne out of Ghana’s first marriage with Rajevac in 2008-2010, one that produced easily Ghana’s best record at the World Cup, a quarter-final berth in South Africa 2010, the one in which Asamoah Gyan missed a last gasp penalty against Uruguay, which would have landed Ghana a place at the semi-final, the first for any African team.

But that absolute faith had a tinge of naivety written all over it because Rajevac, after opting for oil cash in Al Ahli Saudi Arabia, rather than consolidating his gains with the Black Stars, was sacked for non-performance barely a year after he left. From Ahli, he was appointed coach of Qatar but was sacked for non-performance there too. Barely four months into his Algerian career, he was sacked again. He went to Thailand and was sacked there also, after a 4-1 defeat to India. After a series of dismissals, the 68-year-old was probably enjoying retirement until a three-member search committee led by Randy Abbey, a former FA Spokesperson, decided that Rajevac was the man to break Ghana’s trophy jinx. They went for him.

Horrible Game Management

With that famous press conference by Chairman Kurt Okraku, Rajevac was outdoored to the Ghanaian public, who were vehemently divided over the FA’s choice. Rajevac managed to take Ghana to the third and final round of the World Cup qualifier but led a jerky AFCON preparation in faraway Dubai, with a 3-0 defeat to Algeria. A listless performance in Ghana’s Group C opener against Morocco meant the Stars would succumb to a 0-1 defeat. A gush of unplanned substitutions after the 86th minute by Milovan Rajevac could not salvage a point from the jaws of defeat.

Then Gabon came along. The Stars were in the driving seat attempting to defend a superb individual goal by captain Dede Ayew.  It was still an unconvincing performance but a little improvement on the first. Then disaster struck very late in the game with two minutes to go. A gross lack of concentration mixed with naivety meant the Stars looked on, expecting a fair play gesture from a wounded lion after they played the ball out of touch for an injured player to be attended to. Reality dawned on them only after Joe Wallocot, Ghana’s goalkeeper with Swindon Town FC, a fourth-tier team in England, picked the ball from the net. Milovan went into battery reset with another gush of late substitutions, three after 90 minutes. The winning horse had already bolted.

Michael Oti Adjei, a seasoned journalist, formerly with the BBC and now with one of Ghana’s foremost TV stations, TV3, summed up the frustrations of Ghanaians in this interview captured on TV3’s evening news programme and published on Facebook. He was vehement with a call for the immediate dismissal of coach Milovan Rajevac, a position widely supported by many Ghanaians…

It was a must-win tie against Comoros. Only a seer or an obstinate gambler would bet against a Ghanaian victory. But when Comoros took the lead in just two minutes and got Dede Ayew red-carded after 25 minutes, even the pundits began a rethink. Ghana was on a verge of a shocking first-round exit, masterminded by a debutant. Rajevac had learnt a lesson from the two games and brought on fresh legs early in the second half but things went from bad to worse. It was as if Ghana was jinxed to exit at all cost. Comoros increased the tally to two and sank the Stars into deeper waters of misery. But the Stars dug deep. With ten men, they played better than what they did with 11 after 180 minutes of football with Morocco and Gabon. The hard work paid off. Richmond Boakye Yiadom, one of the substitutes, and Alexander Djiku gave Ghana a livewire drawing parity. In the last five minutes of the game, another bombshell struck. Comoros secured a famous and historic victory against four-time AFCON champions who had struggled to find their rhythm in the entire tournament. Ghana’s worst fears had been confirmed and that was the reason for the apocalypse back in Ghana.

Michael Oti Adjei, a seasoned journalist, formerly with the BBC and now with one of Ghana’s foremost TV stations, TV3, summed up the frustrations of Ghanaians in this interview captured on TV3’s evening news programme and published on Facebook. He was vehement with a call for the immediate dismissal of coach Milovan Rajevac, a position widely supported by many Ghanaians, some of whom have shared their sentiments on Facebook and other traditional and social media outlets.

Magic Or Realistic Expectation?

However, with the posturing of Milovan Rajevac, and comments by the FA Chair, it does not look like the Serbian will be moving an inch, at least for now. Rajevac, in a retort, told journalists they cannot expect magic because he had only been in charge for three-and-a-half months. The FA Chairman appears to be jumping to the defence of the coach with an attempt at rationalising his bad performance.

With the third and final world cup qualifier slated for March 2022, the only silver lining at least for now is that crucial meeting between the government and the FA. The government has not hidden its preference for a local coach and given the tone of the letter of summons to the FA. Something dramatic is expected to happen in the next few days, hopefully without a FIFA ban.

Nathan Tetteh Gadugah is the editor for Dubawa, the fact checking platform, in Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and The Gambia.