Vice president of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Mark Addo has defended the decision by Chris Hughton to leave out Black Stars captain Andre Ayew on the bench for the win against Angola.
The Nottingham Forest forward had to cheer his teammates from the bench after he was dropped in Chris Hughton’s first match in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at the Baba Yara Stadium on Thursday.
In his absence, Thomas Partey captained the team in a not-so-impressive encounter which saw Ghana grab the win in the dying embers of the game thanks to a rebound from Antoine Semenyo.
Speaking after the game, Mark Addo who doubles as the chairman of the Black Stars management committee insisted that the coach did no wrong in his selection and has urged Ghanaians to respect his decision.
“Andre Ayew was substituted against Uruguay at the World Cup in Qatar and I see nothing wrong with that.
“I don’t know what necessitated the decision to drop him [in the Angola game] but I don’t see anything wrong with Chris Hughton’s choice to leave out Andre Ayew out of the Black Stars squad.
“I don’t want to conjecture anything because that would be a disservice to the technical team and the playing body but I don’t think there is anything wrong with that decision,” he told Asempa FM.
The coach had earlier explained why he dropped the 33-year-old citing it as a personal choice to do so.
“This is the choice you have as a head coach. You know the quality that Andre has you also know the quality that I like to think the squad have…so these are very difficult decisions for me; certainly, nothing to read into that. He is, has been, and is still a very good player it was just my choice”, Hughton said after the game.
Ghana will travel to Angola for the reverse fixture on Monday as they seek to seal qualification for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.