Former Ghana U17 head coach Bashir Hayford claims he has not been offered a national team appointment by the Kurt Okraku-led GFA administration solely on political grounds.
The trainer, who has handled several top clubs in the West African nation including giants Asante Kotoko and Medeama, has not been active since leaving Accra-based Legon Cities in April 2021.
Commenting on the appointment of four local coaches namely; Samuel Boadu, Prosper Narteh, Ignatius Osei-Fosu, and Ibrahim Tanko to understudy the Ghana technical team, he told Enoch Worlanyo on the SportsNite show that he has been told that he didn’t support Kurt Okraku during the 2019 GFA Presidential elections.
“During the elections, I wasn’t in the country. I was in coaching in Somalia. Interestingly, there was a vacancy at the GFA that I applied for. But, I didn’t hear anything from them. I only heard later that the vacancy has been filled up. Then someone close to the GFA told me that I won’t be considered for any position because I didn’t support Kurt Okraku during the elections,” he claimed.
Hayford is counted among the renowned coaches in Ghana and managed the Ghana U17 male team from 2005 to 2006, helping the Black Starlets to eliminate the Ivory Coast in the final round of the qualification series.
Incidentally, the outspoken trainer couldn’t lead the national team to the tournament in Togo after he was suspended by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for entering the field of play which is not allowed per FIFA rules of the game.
Hayford had run onto the field to save a Ghanaian player who had passed out. However, CAF went ahead to sanction him, forcing the Ghana FA at the time to replace him with Silas Tetteh.
