Former Ghana international Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu believes the Black Stars are struggling because the national youth teams have been left to collapse.

According to him, the senior national team, in the past have enjoyed success due to the conscious effort given to the junior teams.

Since the Black Starlets U-17 World Cup appearance in 2017, none of Ghana's male youth teams has been on the global stage while only Mohammed Kudus from that squad has been in the senior national team as a regular.

At the Black Stars level, there has been no major success with the performances dwindling over the years.

Speaking to the BBC, Agyemang-Badu says the foundation for the senior national team is weak.

"It's been very difficult for Ghana for the past four or five years. The basic structures that normally help us to qualify for major competitions, or the country people know concerning our football, have changed," he said.

"Our weapon as a nation is our junior teams because that's where we get our players, and they grow to feed into the Black Stars. Now, our weapon, where we get our players, has really collapsed. The national U-17 has collapsed, the U-20 is not working, the CHAN team is also not working."

The former U-20 World Cup winner cited examples of the steady transition of youth players into the senior team.

"When you look at the year 2000, we got the Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari, Derek Boateng; they graduated from the U-20 to form the Black Stars, and we took over from 2009 until most of us stopped playing," he added.

"Since then, we have not been able to form the youth teams that would feed into the national team to form the Black Stars, and it has been very difficult for the supporters and everybody.

The Black Stars, following the defeat to Sudan on Tuesday, October 15, are on the verge of missing out on the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.

"We have reached a point where it's difficult for us to qualify for even AFCON. It's been terrible [in the last four years], and we need to go back to the basics," he continued.

The Black Stars sit third in the qualifying series behind Angola and Sudan and will need to win their remaining two games in November while hoping the Falcons of Jediane lose theirs.