Hughton’s team only managed two points and finished third in Group B at the AFCON after losing all three of their group stage games.

Ghana had a chance to advance to the round of sixteen as one of the better third-placed teams, even after their poor 2-2 draw with Mozambique on Monday, in which they gave up two goals in extra time.

But Ghana, the four-time AFCON champions, were eliminated from the competition after Cameroon defeated The Gambia 3-2 earlier on Tuesday.

A statement from the Ghana Football Association (GFA) late on Tuesday stated, “The GFA wishes to announce that Chris Hughton has been relieved of his duties as head coach of the senior national team with immediate effect.”

The Black Stars’ technical team will be dissolved, as decided by the executive council.

In the upcoming days, the Ghana Football Association will provide a blueprint outlining the Black Stars’ future course.AFCON 2023 permutations: Ivory Coast has to make it to the knockout stage, but Ghana and Algeria are out.

In consecutive AFCONs, Ghana’s captain Andre Ayew has already seen his team eliminated at the group stage (Issouf Sanogo/AFP via Getty Images)

Following their 2-2 draws with Egypt and Mozambique—the latter saw Hughton’s squad give up two penalties in extra time—Ghana lost their opening-day match against Cape Verde. As a result, they dropped to third place in the group.

Following the tie with Mozambique, the 65-year-old stated that things are still extremely fresh. Something is going on outside. Right now, the place is furious.

However, the game gets quite challenging if you can’t finish it. Our recent performances have been lacking. We played three games, gave up two goals in each, and now find ourselves in a challenging predicament.

Although several of our players had a strong desire to succeed, their performance and the outcomes from these three games fell short of expectations. My influence on the team can only be assessed based on the outcomes.

“This was our greatest chance to perform well. We’ve had the players for a while to practice together, and while we expected to develop stronger the longer we competed, the truth is that we haven’t. I feel that my performance has fallen short of expectations.

In February 2022, Hughton began serving as a technical advisor for the GFA, along with head coach Otto Addo. Ghana defeated Nigeria in their World Cup qualifying play-off match later that year to guarantee their spot in the tournament in Qatar.

However, Ghana was eliminated from the World Cup at the group stage after losing to Uruguay and Portugal and winning against South Korea.

Hughton took on two interim manager positions with  Hotspur prior to accepting his first permanent position at Newcastle United in 2009–2010. Since then, he has played for Nottingham Forest, Norwich City, Brighton, and Birmingham City.

Hughton was fired as Forest’s manager in September 2021 after the team had only managed one point in their first seven games of the year.  Cooper was then appointed by the club.