Black Starlets captain Issah Abdul Rafiu has apologised to Ghanaians after Ghana missed out on qualification for the 2027 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations following a 1-0 defeat to Ivory Coast in the semi-finals of the 2026 WAFU Zone B U-17 Championship.

The young captain expressed his disappointment over the team’s failure to achieve its main target, recognising the frustration among supporters who had hoped to see Ghana qualify for the tournament in Morocco.

Ahead of Friday’s third-place playoff against hosts Burkina Faso, Issah asked Ghanaians to forgive the team and promised that the players would fight to win the bronze medal.

“First of all, we want to send our apologies to Ghanaians for failing to qualify for the AFCON. But we want to assure them that we will show up tomorrow and win the bronze medal to show we were down by a man that’s why we lost to Ivory Coast.”

Ghana’s semi-final campaign was disrupted in the 17th minute when defender Daniel Owusu received a straight red card, leaving the Black Starlets with 10 players for the rest of the match.

Despite being a man down, the team created several scoring chances but failed to take advantage of them. Ivory Coast eventually scored the only goal of the match through Alex Fousseni Bamba in the 76th minute.

The defeat came after Ghana had enjoyed a strong group-stage campaign, finishing top of Group A with seven points from three matches. The Starlets defeated Togo and Benin before playing out a goalless draw against Burkina Faso.

With qualification for the 2027 U-17 AFCON no longer possible, Issah and his teammates will now focus on Friday’s bronze-medal match as they look to finish the competition with a victory.