Ghana football deserves better: A reckoning after the 2026 World Cup

His presidency has stretched across two terms, and in that time the Black Stars have delivered one disappointment after another: a winless group-stage humiliation at one Africa Cup of Nations, a limp group-stage exit at a World Cup, another early elimination at the following Africa Cup of Nations, and then the unthinkable, failing even to qualify for the continent's flagship tournament for the first time in a generation.

The Black Stars left this World Cup with a group-stage escape and a first knockout-round defeat, and the football authorities are already trying to spin that outcome into a triumph.

Now comes this World Cup, sold to the public as progress simply because the team survived one round longer than recent history suggested it might.