Thaindian News

Accra, March 20 (IANS) The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has sacked Goran Stevanovic as the coach of the national team, the Black Stars, following three weeks of extensive meetings.

The Serbian coach, who has a year left under his current deal with the team, has been under incessant pressure after Ghana failed to win the 2012 African Cup of Nations co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

The GFA said in a statement issued here Monday that the decision was taken in the best interest of the nation.

“We will like to express our gratitude to the general public for their concerns about the national team and their patience so far,” the statement quoted the GFA president Kwesi Nyantakyi as saying.

Assistant coach of the Black Stars, Kwesi Appiah, has been asked to take temporary charge of the team until a substantive trainer is named.

Ghanaian media and fans blamed the disappointing fourth place of the team on player indiscipline while others accused coach Stevanovic of poor selection.

But the trainer, in a leaked post-tournament report submitted to the FA, blamed the team’s poor showing at the tournament on the use of black power or “juju” as it is known locally, to destroy one another, Xinhua reports.

The allegation has enraged some members of the executive committee as well as the teeming fans who have called for the immediate termination of his contract.