Ghana Has Sixteen Days and No Coach. Ivory Coast Has Hervé Renard.

Sixteen days. That is how long Ghana has before the Black Stars walk out against Ivory Coast in the opening match of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. Sixteen days to name a coach, pick a squad, open a camp and find a plan.

The elephants have already done all of that. Ivory Coast hired Hervé Renard, the only man to win the Africa Cup of Nations with two different countries, after letting Emerse Faé's contract expire at the end of July. You can argue about whether releasing an AFCON winning coach was wise. You cannot argue that they were slow.

Ghana is still deciding. Otto Addo went in March. Carlos Queiroz came in April on a short deal, took the team to the World Cup knockout stage, and left when talks over a longer contract collapsed. Since then the names have circulated without settling. Desmond Ofei, already inside the setup, is understood to be among the leading candidates. Patrice Beaumelle, who has managed Ivory Coast, Zambia, and Angola, has also been proposed.

One is continuity. One is experience. Neither is signed.

Here is the thing about Group C. Ghana and Ivory Coast are the two heavyweights, and two teams qualify, so both should go through comfortably. Gambia and Somalia complete the group. On paper this is not a crisis.

But Ghana missed the last AFCON entirely. For a country with four continental titles, that absence is still an open wound, and a bad start against the champions with a caretaker on the touchline would reopen it in about ninety minutes.

So we are asking. Should Ghana promote from within and back Desmond Ofei, a Ghanaian who already knows the dressing room? Or should the GFA spend on an experienced foreign name and accept that the last four appointments have all ended in the same argument?

And to our Ivorian readers, the harder question. Your federation just replaced a coach who won you the trophy and took you further at a World Cup than any Ivory Coast side in history. Renard is a legend in Abidjan. But was letting Faé go the right call, or did you swap the future for the past?

Sixteen days. Tell us who you would appoint.