{"id":115764,"date":"2026-02-17T11:47:02","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=115764"},"modified":"2026-02-17T11:47:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:47:02","slug":"black-stars-disastrous-afcon-2023-campaign-didnt-surprise-me-kurt-okraku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=115764","title":{"rendered":"Black Stars \u2018disastrous\u2019 AFCON 2023 campaign didn\u2019t surprise me \u2013 Kurt Okraku"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>1 Minute, 13 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
\n

President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kurt Okraku, says he was not surprised by the Black Stars\u2019 performance at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).<\/p>\n

According to him, he was not expecting the Black Stars to perform differently from what they did when they took to the competition in Cote d\u2019Ivoire. <\/p>\n

Ghana was knocked out in the group stage of the continental tournament for the second consecutive time after managing just two points from three games. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe qualified for the AFCON in Cote d\u2019Ivoire, and it was a disaster; it didn\u2019t go well, and I was very livid about the turnout of the events because I saw everything right unfold in my eyes,\u201d he said on Asaase Radio.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest with you, going into that competition, I was not expecting anything different\u2026for those of my guys who were close to me, I was very clear to them in private that it won\u2019t work. I knew the team and I knew about the happenings in the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe exited the competition, and once we came home, there was a need to re-examine what we did, and instead of us going up, we started to decline, and we didn\u2019t make it to the last AFCON.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having missed out on qualification for AFCON 2025, the Black Stars managed to secure a spot at the 2026 FIFA World Cup to be staged in Mexico, USA and Canada.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n \n
\n \n \"Happy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Happy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sad\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sad <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Excited\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Excited <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sleepy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sleepy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Angry\"\n <\/a>\n
Angry<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Surprise\"\n <\/a>\n
Surprise<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
According to him, he was not expecting the Black Stars to perform differently from what they did when they took to the competition in Cote d’Ivoire.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17035,807,137,5033,1883,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afcon-2023","category-black-stars","category-football","category-kurt-okraku","category-national","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}