What was expected to be a do-or-die affair looked more like a friendly for Ghana’s Black Stars, and Sudan capitalized on their torpidity to secure a convincing 2-0 victory on matchday four of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in Benghazi, Libya.

For the first time ever, Ghana are winless in four consecutive qualifying matches, and now sit third in Group F with just two points from a possible 12.

They now stand on the brink of missing out on the continental showpiece for the first time in two decades.

Once again, Ghanaians will have to rely on calculations - something they've grown all too familiar with in recent years - to gauge the nation’s slim chances of qualifying, as their fate is no longer in their hands.

Ghana are “in challenging times”

With a storied history, boasting four titles and four World Cup appearances, it’s hard for many, including the sport’s top brass, to accept the harsh reality of the Black Stars' decline.

Ahead of Ghana’s first-leg encounter with Sudan in the Afcon qualifiers, the head of the Football Association, Kurt Okraku, delivered a fiery outburst to the team: “Come on, guys, you drew against Niger. You drew 1-1 against Niger! That was the scoreline. No joke. 1-1 against Niger!”

Kurt was in disbelief over the draw with the 127th-ranked nation, but perhaps he must realize that this current team is only a shadow of the one that dominated African football, particularly in the '60s through the '80s.

The Black Stars, who recently dropped from 64th to 70th in the FIFA rankings, have failed to win a match in the last two AFCON tournaments, despite facing opponents ranked as low as 84th (Gabon), 118th (Comoros), 99th (Mozambique), and 65th (Cape Verde).

They haven’t won an away AFCON qualifier in five years, their last victory coming in 2019 against São Tomé and Príncipe.

Even more alarming, Ghana has won only three of their last 16 matches in all competitions which highlights the team's grave downward spiral in performance.

Charles Kwablan Akonnor, who coached the team from January 2020 to September 2021, acknowledged the new reality: “We [Ghana] are in a challenging period and all I will tell you is that the whole nation needs to get behind the team and support them. This [decline] happens all over the world. After Germany won the World Cup [2014], what have they done? Almighty Brazil are struggling, these are huge football nations."

Akonnor, who was the first coaching appointment of the Kurt-led administration, may have been dismissed due to some disappointing results. Yet, despite three subsequent hires - Milovan Rajevac, Chris Hughton and Otto Addo - the problems remain far from resolved.

Current trainer Addo seems like a rabbit caught in the headlights, overseeing the nation’s worst AFCON qualifying campaign. However, the cause of the decline is beyond him; it runs deeply rooted in the system.

As the saying goes, "The first step to solving a problem is admitting there is one." Football authorities in the country must accept the harsh truth regarding the current state of the Black Stars, pick themselves off the canvas, and take hold of the situation.

No quick fixes for Ghana’s decline

The incumbent administration, in collaboration with the Sports Ministry, has made four changes to the Black Stars' technical team in five years. However, this has only led the team to brief purple patches, typically sparked by the new-manager bounce.

Serbian Milovan Rajevac was unbeaten in his first four games, winning three, but he was dismissed after a winless and disappointing AFCON in Cameroon. Chris Hughton guided Ghana to a five-match unbeaten run but found himself on the chopping block following yet another disastrous AFCON in Ivory Coast.

While Addo's two impressive 2026 World Cup qualifying wins over Mali and the Central African Republic tried to eclipse the deep-rooted problems, the subsequent four matches in the 2025 AFCON qualifiers without a victory have brought the nation back down to earth.

In the span of five years, various players have been invited while others have been dropped, including captain Andre Ayew, but these decisions have done little to change the downward trajectory of the nation. The challenge cannot be addressed with short-term fixes; the fundamentals must be fixed to ensure future success.

Virtually all formidable nations globally boast a strong youth system that facilitates steady transitions for players all the way to the senior national team. These players are often well-grounded and nurtured, having gone through periods of mistakes before being primed for top-profile football.

England, Spain, France, who are within the top five of September’s FIFA Men’s rankings, have benefited from policies that prioritize the production of supremely talented players like Harry Kane, Rodri, and Aurélien Tchouaméni. Most of their players compete with cohesion, having built chemistry at the youth level.

For example, Tchouaméni, who received his first senior call-up to the France team in 2021, has four youth teammates - Eduardo Camavinga, Mattéo Guendouzi, Jules Koundé, and Ibrahima Konaté - who he played alongside at the youth level. Unlike Mohammed Kudus, who is the only player in the current Ghana team from the 2017 U-17 World Cup squad in India, with Fatawu Issahaku also being the sole representative from the Black Satellites AFCON-winning team in 2021.

The trend of not progressing players to the next stage must be abandoned.

Another option that has worked significantly well for the Black Stars in the past is the reliance on home-based players, particularly from the Ghana Premier League. The country’s all-time greats - like Abedi Pele, Mohammed Polo, Asamoah Gyan - were all molded in the local league.

However, in recent times, many performing players opt to ply their trade in less-recognized football nations in search of greener pastures due to poor remuneration in Ghana. This not only disrupts the cohesion established with their teammates but also debilitates the domestic league’s influence on the national team.

A prime example is the 2024 Ghana Football Awards Home-Based Player of the Year, Emmanuel Keyekeh, who played a crucial role in Samartex’s Premier League title win last season. Keyekeh had joined Tanzanian top-flight club Singida Black Stars FC - a move that seemingly undermines the prestige of Ghana's league.

"Our players are now running to go to Tanzania, it is a shame. They should rather be coming here. Our players are going to Sudan,” former Black Stars captain Stephen Appiah lamented during the Parliamentary Select Committee Afcon probe.

The current squad accentuates the issue, as only two home-based players were called up - Kotoko's Frederick Asare and Samartex's Isaac Afful - yet neither featured in the 180 minutes of football played.

From the starting eleven for both encounters against Sudan, only Gideon Mensah, who once played in Ghana's top-flight for WAFA, represented any connection to the domestic league.

“We have to give local players the chance and confidence to play for the national team," Appiah added.

The decline is surmountable, but it requires bold, radical decisions and inordinate amount of time to bear fruits in the future.