Ghana’s Badu backs under-fire coach Stevanovic

Mohamad Mosselhi, Wednesday 15 Feb 2012

Ghanaian midfielder Emmanuel Badu defends his coach Goran Stevanovic, calls on Ghana’s FA to keep faith with him despite failure to win Nations Cup

Emmanuel Badu

Ghana midfielder Emmanuel Badu demanded that the Ghanaian football association retain the services of coach Goran Stevanovic despite the Black Stars’ frustrating fourth-place finish at the African Cup of Nations.

"The African cup is very close. Now if you say you want another coach, so many coaches like 50 or 60 will bring their letters and say they want to coach Ghana. Now you have to sit with them and it will take three or four months,” Badu was quoted as saying by KickOff on Wednesday.

“But this man knows the players now and he knows what he can do for the team. If I am the president I think I will but once I am a player I will play under whoever is there. I don't work for the coach, I work for the country."

The Serbian coach has come in for fierce criticism after Ghana suffered a surprise 1-0 defeat by Zambia in the Nations Cup semifinal.

Many pundits and fans have called on Stevanivic to hand in his resignation but he declared on Monday he had no intention to resign, saying he wanted to see out his contract with the GFA.

Stevanovic, who has one year to remain on his contract, will know his fate the next week following a meeting with the executive committee of the GFA.

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