Black Stars in Turmoil: Atta Poku slams mass withdrawals ahead of AFCON qualifiers

Collins Atta Poku, a member of Aduana Stars Management and a sports analyst, has expressed concern over the withdrawal of eight players from the Black Stars’ 25-man squad ahead of the crucial Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Angola and Niger.

Antoine Semenyo, Inaki Williams, Jonas Adjetey, Tariq Lamptey, Jerome Opoku, Alexander Djiku, Ibrahim Osman, and Joseph Paintsil opted out for various reasons.

They have been replaced by Osman Bukari (Austin FC), Ransford Yeboah Königsdörffer (Hamburger SV), Forson Amankwah (Norwich City), Terry Yegbe (IF Elfsborg), Ebenezer Annan (OFK Beograd), and Kingsley Schindler (Samsunspor).

According to Atta Poku, such a significant withdrawal is unprecedented and suggests that the Black Stars may no longer hold the same prestige they once had.

It actually paints the gloomy picture of this affecting our reality now.

This has not happened to us before, you would have one or two excusing themselves but to have eight players excusing themselves.

What it means is that going forward we would have to accept the reality of where we are currently and ensure that we accept to build a team that would be capable of contesting for the bigger trophies on the continent and in the world.

Let me be real here , do you think any of these guys would have jump ship if we had already qualified for the world cup and we were struggling to qualify for the African cup of nations?”

The team trained behind closed doors at the Accra Sports Stadium on Wednesday before flying out to Angola later that day.

The team’s squad number has now increased from eight to twenty-two.