Dramatic win fails to save Ghana coach Appiah
ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana parted company with coach Kwesi Appiah on Friday 48 hours after a dramatic away win at neighbours Togo resurrected their African Nations Cup qualifying campaign.
“The Ghana Football Association (GFA) and Black Stars coach James Kwesi Appiah have agreed to mutually part ways,” said a statement confirming reports circulating for several days.
“The two parties met on Friday morning to reach the agreement on the departure of Mr Appiah.
“The lawyers of the two parties will meet next week to decide on the severance package for Mr Appiah based on the contract of his appointment.
"The GFA wishes to thank Mr Appiah for his diligent service to the country as the coach of the Black Stars for the past two years.”
Ghana beat Togo 3-2 in a dramatic finish in a Group E game on Wednesday after a disappointing start to their campaign last weekend when Uganda held them to a 1-1 draw in Kumasi.
Former Ghana coach Serbian Milovan Rajevac is set to the return to the job after arriving in Accra this week for discussions with the GFA, media reports said.
Appiah took Ghana to the World Cup in Brazil where they failed to win a match in a difficult first round group with Germany, Portugal and the USA.
The 54-year-old Appiah, a former Ghana fullback, made his way through the coaching ranks at the GFA and, after serving as an assistant and twice as caretaker coach, was given the national team job on a full-time basis in 2012.
He had a total of 35 games in charge, winning 16, drawing nine and losing 10.
Appiah had been a poster boy for African coaches, amid a growing consensus they needed to be given more opportunities to manage national teams as opposed to expensive foreigners.
He worked as an assistant to Milovan Rajevac, who took Ghana to the World Cup quarter-finals in 2010 and then replaced him for two matches before another Serb, Goran Stevanovic, spent just over a year in charge.
Appiah took Ghana to fourth place at the 2013 African Nations Cup and a subsequently stellar World Cup qualification campaign but his predictions that Ghana would get to the semi-finals in Brazil did him few favours.
(Reporting by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Ken Ferris)
