Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, a former sports minister for Ghana, desires a resolution of the Black Stars bonus situation before the World Cup.
In his appearance before Parliament to discuss preparations for the Black Stars ahead of the FIFA World Cup the money, which would be distributed from the group stage until the semifinals, was announced by the current minister of sports, Mustapha Ussif, to be $14.1 million.
Afriyie Ankrah desires that the issue be resolved as soon as possible.
“Appearance fees and other remuneration need to be settled and locked in now.
“In my case, the government said they will give them $75,000 they received from the previous World Cup.
“The players also felt that FIFA has increased the amount of money given to each participating countries and since they were players they deserved more and they asked for $100,000.
“So it was that dichotomy which wasn’t resolved until we got to Brazil that created all the problems and I was caught in the middle because I was part of the cabinet decision and cabinet decided to give them $75,000 but they insisted on the $100,000.
“We even sent a delegation of Dr. Adu Asare and Dr. Mustapha to go and meet them in Montenegro and convince them but it didn’t work.
“It had to take H.E Amissah Arthur on the field of training in Brazil to change the cabinet decision from $75,000 to $100,000 and announce it to them before they will play the first game.
“Subsequently they now said because there’s been so much confusion they don’t want any remittance through the bank, we want to see physical cash.
“So all these things were avoidable.” Elvis Afriyie Ankrah told Radio Gold Talk Sport.
