Neil Armstrong-Mortagbe confident Black Stars will bounce back in AFCON 2025
Ghana players pose for a team photo ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) 2024 group B football match between Mozambique and Ghana at Alassane Ouattara Olympic Stadium in Ebimpe, Abidjan on January 22, 2024. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP) (Photo by ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP via Getty Images)The Head of Public Relations and Strategy of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Neil Armstrong-Mortagbe, believes there is hope that the Black Stars can perform better in next year’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco.The senior national team have failed to impress in the last two editions of the AFCON, suffering back-to-back group phase elimination in Cameroon and Ivory Coast respectively.However, the Black Stars will return to action in September when they take on Angola and Niger in the first two games of the Group F qualifiers, as they aim to make their 25th AFCON appearance.Speaking in an interview, the veteran football administrator expressed confidence in the Black Stars’ potential for improvement, citing their recent performance in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.”We believe that we are on a journey. The last two AFCONS didn’t go the way anybody expected. In between them, we had a fairly decent outing at the 2022 World Cup which gives the hope that we can be much better than we saw especially in our last AFCON,” he told ChannelOne TV.Armstrong-Mortagbe also highlighted the impact of head coach Otto Addo, who took over after the 2023 AFCON, and the team’s progress in the World Cup qualifiers.”Otto Addo came after that (2023) AFCON. He’s come in implementing a plan. From the last two World Cup qualifiers that we saw, we can see the beginnings of the shapings of a squad or a team that should be able to hold its own when it is that the best of Africa gather again next year,” he added.The Black Stars will host Angola on September 5 at the Baba Yara Stadium before traveling to play Niger in Berkane on September 9, as they begin their quest for a 25th AFCON appearance.
