Former Sports Minister Elvis Afriyie Ankrah has advised the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to sort out the appearance fees of the Black Stars ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Last Friday, Youth and Sports Minister Mustapha Ussif disclosed Ghana’s budget for Black Stars’ participation in the group stage of World Cup is a little over $8 million.
Ussif also revealed that the amount will increase based on the stage the Black Stars will reach at the global showpiece, however, he failed to mention the appearance fees, players of the Black Stars will receive.
"Appearance fees and other remuneration needs to be settled and locked in now," Elvis Afriyie Ankrah told Radio Gold.
"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."
He added, "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."