{"id":67009,"date":"2024-02-18T17:24:43","date_gmt":"2024-02-18T17:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/?p=67009"},"modified":"2024-02-18T17:08:50","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T17:08:50","slug":"kufuor-backs-okraku-amid-pressure-to-revive-ghana-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/kufuor-backs-okraku-amid-pressure-to-revive-ghana-football","title":{"rendered":"Kufuor backs Okraku amid pressure to revive Ghana football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Ghana. <\/strong><\/span><b>Former Ghana President John Agyekum Kufuor has backed Kurt Okraku as the Ghana Football Association president faces mounting pressure to address the current downturn.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Kufuor expressed confidence that Okraku was \u201cgoing to pull out of it\u201d as pressure mounts for the FA leader to take decisive action following another disappointment for the Black Stars at a major tournament.<\/p>\n<p>The Black Stars suffered elimination in the group stage at the recently concluded AFCON 2023 in Ivory Coast. This marked the second consecutive AFCON tournament in which the Black Stars failed to progress beyond the group stage.<\/p>\n<p>Okraku\u2019s leadership has faced intense scrutiny, with the Save Ghana Football demonstration garnering attention earlier in the week. Hundreds of fans, led by sports journalists, took to the streets to protest against Okraku\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the mounting pressure, Okraku found support during his visit to President Kufuor\u2019s residence on Tuesday for the launch of the JA Kufuor Cup.<\/p>\n<p>The former Ghanaian leader offered words of encouragement to the embattled GFA boss, stating: \u201cI know you are embattled now from, sadly the non-performance of the Black Stars in Cote d\u2019Ivoire, that\u2019s sports for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former Ghana President John Agyekum Kufuor officially launched the JA Kufuor Cup trophy earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese days everybody knows how to play soccer or football around the world, so you don\u2019t underrate anybody. You don\u2019t get complacent. Perhaps when we do the full analysis, I am not blaming you but since you are the head of the institution, naturally it\u2019s leadership but I am sure you are going to pull out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following the disappointment at AFCON, the first step taken was the dismissal of coach Chris Hughton and the disbanding of the technical team.<\/p>\n<p>However, there is a sentiment among some that more significant changes are needed. Despite calls for Okraku\u2019s resignation, he enjoys substantial support as he seeks to turn the fortunes of Ghanaian football around.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\">Ghana<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Ghana. Former Ghana President John Agyekum Kufuor has backed Kurt Okraku as the Ghana Football Association president faces mounting pressure to address the current downturn. Kufuor expressed confidence that Okraku was \u201cgoing to pull out of it\u201d as pressure mounts for the FA leader to take decisive action following another disappointment for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":67008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[5092,5096,429],"class_list":["post-67009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-ghana","tag-ghana"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kufuor backs Okraku amid pressure to revive Ghana football - Ghana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Ghana President John Agyekum Kufuor has backed Kurt Okraku as the Ghana Football Association president faces m ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/kufuor-backs-okraku-amid-pressure-to-revive-ghana-football\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kufuor backs Okraku amid pressure to revive Ghana football\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Ghana President John Agyekum Kufuor has backed Kurt Okraku as the Ghana Football Association president faces m ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/kufuor-backs-okraku-amid-pressure-to-revive-ghana-football\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ghana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-18T17:24:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2024\/02\/sm_1708263432.17976.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/kufuor-backs-okraku-amid-pressure-to-revive-ghana-football#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/kufuor-backs-okraku-amid-pressure-to-revive-ghana-football\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Kufuor backs Okraku amid pressure to revive Ghana football\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-18T17:24:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/kufuor-backs-okraku-amid-pressure-to-revive-ghana-football\"},\"wordCount\":347,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/kufuor-backs-okraku-amid-pressure-to-revive-ghana-football#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/ghana\/sites\/18\/2024\/02\/sm_1708263432.17976.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Ghana\",\"ghana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/kufuor-backs-okraku-amid-pressure-to-revive-ghana-football#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/kufuor-backs-okraku-amid-pressure-to-revive-ghana-football\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/ghana\/all-news\/kufuor-backs-okraku-amid-pressure-to-revive-ghana-football\",\"name\":\"Kufuor backs Okraku amid pressure to revive Ghana football - 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