After settling on Ghana’s final squad for this month’s Cup of Nations, the Black Stars handlers and Ghana Football Association (GFA) are still grappling with the thorny issue of who to captain the team to Mali.

A leadership vacuum was created in the team when deputy captain Samuel Osei Kuffuor turned down a request to step in that role after skipper Charles Akunnr was dropped from the provisional squad.

As at Thursday, a day before their departure, the issue had not been resolved with Goldfields Princeton Owusu-Ansah, Hearts of Oak’s Emmanuel Osei Kuffour and even the Bayern Munich star being considered to captain the team.

The Graphic Sports investigations revealed that officials of the FA and the Black Stars Management Committee were prevailing upon the deputy captain to rescind his decision, but Samuel Kuffour stuck to his guns and only left the door open.

As a result, Owusu-Ansah, who captained the Stars in their warm-up matches against the Basque Country XI and Egypt, came into strong consideration.

In the case of Emmanuel Osei Kuffour, who was only included in the final 22-man squad after Stephen Appiah was knocked out by injury, he is also in contention after captaining the Stars in the World Cup qualifiers against Nigeria in Accra and Port Harcourt. Until recently, he played the role of spokesman and acting captain of the team during their training camp.

The team handlers have remained mute on the issue as well as reports of a possible replacement of the team’s Welfare Officer Kudjoe Fianoo, who has been accused of leaking information to the press.