There is an old, timeless piece of Ewe wisdom that warns: “If you make your face like a dog, they will take you to the farm.” It is a beautifully vivid proverb about the perils of looking a little too compliant, a little too passive, or just goofy enough to be handed a hoe and pointed toward the hard labour of the cassava patch.
For the longest time, the Ghana Football Association (GFA) managed to avoid the farm. They strutted around the plush offices of the Ridge residential area, carrying themselves not like farmhands, but like untouchable lords of a private fiefdom, wrapped securely in the bulletproof vest of FIFA’s “government interference” statutes. But after a series of legendary tactical disasters, the GFA has finally fashioned its face into the perfect canine expression. And right on cue, Sports Minister Kofi Adams has shown up with a very sharp hoe, ready to take them all the way to the plantation.
The latest drama unfolded with comedic precision. The Ministry of Sports and Recreation dropped a heavy, seven-point hammer on the GFA. This massive bureaucratic intervention was triggered by the Black Stars’ sensational ability to turn the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers into a masterclass in comedic defence. Losing 2-0 to Ivory Coast in Bouaké was bad enough. But blowing a comfortable two-goal lead at the Accra Sports Stadium to lose 4-2 to The Gambia? That required a special kind of artistic incompetence. It takes real skill to make a football pitch look like an Accra market day during a downpour.
The curious case of the 111-day coach
Naturally, the first casualty of this tragicomedy was the legendary Portuguese tactician Carlos Queiroz, who exit stage left after just 111 days across two separate stints in 2026. Queiroz’s departure was wrapped in the usual, diplomatic fluff of “mutual termination.” In his parting Instagram post, he asked Ghanaians to “believe in these players” and “protect them.” He forgot to add, “and please protect them from their own federation.”
Rumours from the camp suggest Queiroz packed his bags because he couldn’t handle the classic Ghanaian cocktail of player interference and chaotic hotel logistics. He also reportedly insisted on bringing in a bizarrely extensive backroom staff that included a 70-year-old kit manager. When your kit manager has seen more decades than your entire midfield combined, you know the strategy is getting a bit dusty. But let’s be honest: hiring seven coaches in seven years is not a technical direction—it’s a speed-dating exercise where everyone ends up heartbroken.
Black Stars’ disaster timeline
(2026), June 2026: World Cup Round of 32 Exit vs Colombia (1-0), Sept 2026: AFCON Qualifier — Ivory Coast 2 – 0 Ghana, Sept 2026: AFCON Qualifier — Ghana 2 – 4 The Gambia, | Oct 1, 2026: Carlos Queiroz Mutually Terminates Contract.
Oct 2, 2026: Kofi Adams drops 7 post-meeting directives
Entering the “Cooperation” Era
For months, furious fans and members of Parliament have been screaming at President John Dramani Mahama’s government to simply dissolve the GFA. But Kofi Adams is a clever politician. He knows that if he locks the doors to the GFA secretariat, FIFA will descend upon Ghana football like an angry deity, banning the nation from international tournaments faster than a referee can flash a red card.
So, instead of a dramatic coup, Adams chose the path of bureaucratic suffocation. He took to the airwaves of Joy FM to gently remind everyone that while the state cannot legally dissolve the GFA because it is a “private registered entity that pays its taxes,” the state absolutely owns the money that funds the national teams.
And that is how we arrived at the Seven Golden Directives.
The Ministry has ordered the wholesale dissolution of the entire Black Stars technical team and all existing management committees. In their place, Adams is creating a brand-new National Technical Management Committee. The catch? It will feature two government-appointed experts sitting right next to two GFA nominees. To ensure the GFA doesn’t sneak any strange names into the new head coach’s contract, the Ministry has also grabbed three coveted seats on the five-member coaching search committee.
The Golden hoe of accountability
The crowning jewel of this intervention is a mandatory, FIFA-standard cooperation agreement that the GFA must sign. This is a beautiful piece of legal phrasing that translates to: “We pay for the fuel, we pay for the hotels, and we buy the jerseys, so we will now decide who enters the bus.”
For years, the GFA operated under the comforting illusion that public money is a one-way street—that the Ministry should simply open the state coffers, drop off sacks of cash, and walk away without asking why a backup left-back’s hotel room costs more than a small house in Adenta. But the Ministry has grown tired of being the sugar daddy of Ghanaian football.
The GFA’s absolute lack of a coherent football blueprint has finally stripped them of their autonomy. By consistently presenting a face of cluelessness, they have practically begged the government to step in and handle the farming. As Kurt Okraku and his executives walked out of the Ministry on Friday, clutching their new seven-point marching orders, the reality must have set in. The era of treating the national team as a private goldmine is coming to a very abrupt, very bureaucratic end.
The GFA wanted to play the stubborn dog. Now, they are being led to the field, and Kofi Adams is making sure they dig every single row.
By Emmanuel Amponsah
The writer is a former Editor of The Spectator
