Coach Akonnor’s Black Stars debut further delayed

CK Akonnor’s debut as head coach of the Ghana senior national team has been further deferred, a Fifa decision indicates.

The ex-international, after deputizing former boss Kwasi Appiah in the opening two qualifiers for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, took over the mantle at the beginning of the year and was set to lead the Black Stars out in March, but the COVID-19 pandemic set in and scattered the continental showpiece’s calendar.

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) was forced to indefinitely postpone the March qualifiers across the continent. Ghana’s schedule had a doubleheader battle with Sudan on the cards.

Some three months on, football is gradually returning with a number of domestic club competitions back on track through strict protocols.

Originally on the Fifa calendar, there were three more international windows – September, October and November – before the year 2020 ends.

But the football world governing body has decided to postpone the closest one which is a little over two months away.

On Thursday, the Fifa Council approved changes to the international calendar as a consequence of the health crisis. The Council unanimously endorsed five proposals made by the Fifa-Confederations COVID-19 Working Group, after a long process of consultation with the confederations and interested parties.

The decision relating to the Black Stars’ next match-day in the Afcon 2021 qualifiers reads: “to postpone the September 2020 window for the AFC, Caf, Concacaf and the OFC.”

With two more international windows in October and November left on the cards, Caf intends to use them to complete the qualifiers to Cameroon 2021 Afcon, General Secretary Abdelmounaïm Bah revealed earlier this week. This would see two games played per month to complete the remaining four rounds of qualifiers.

Caf’s Executive Committee is scheduled to meet next week – Tuesday, June 30, 2020 – where it is expected that they will confirm a revised calendar among other key decisions like moving the tournament date from January/February back to the summer – June/July 2021.

Meanwhile, the October and November international windows had originally been scheduled for the commencement of the African qualifiers to the 2022 Fifa World Cup.

In all these, there is also no guarantee that the October/November dates will be any safer for international meetings to resume than September.

Ghana began the 2021 Afcon qualifiers with back-to-back wins against South Africa and Sao Tome and Principe in November 2019.