Hon. Mustapha Ussif, the Minister of Youth and Sports, has announced that the state will invest at least $700,000 on each of the Black Stars’ upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches, which will begin in June of this year.
The Minister revealed the information when describing why his office needed $25 million over the next two years to finance national team operations.
In the qualifiers, Ghana will face South Africa, Sudan, and Ethiopia twice each for a total of six matches.
If Ghana wins its group, it will be drawn against one of the other ten group winners in the final round of qualifiers for a home-and-away tie that will decide the five countries that will represent Africa in Qatar.
When asked how much of the $25 million will go to supporting Black Stars operations, the Minister said the team’s qualification effort for the World Cup alone will cost the state an estimated $5.6 million, according to Umaru Sanda Amadu, host of Face to Face.
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“If we have to participate in the AFCON, we have to plan for the $25 million. We still have two fun games to play. Aside from that, we will not pay less than $700,000 per match in the world cup qualifiers that we would play.
“After that, we’ll compete in the AFCON, where we’ll play a series of matches leading up to the final. As a result, this is a costly venture.
“We need to prepare so that we don’t get a repetition of what happened in Brazil,” he added. “If we don’t have money for the players, they will fail to pay, and instead of concentrating on implementation, everybody will be focused on the minister.”
The Ministry has already received $10 million from the government, and a four-member team led by the Sports Minister has been formed to collect the additional $15 million needed to meet the ministry’s $25 million target.
SOURCE: ATLFMONLINE
