Ministry, FA in fresh standoff?
Another fierce crossfire between the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ghana Football Association (GFA) has erupted, leaving the Black Stars’ international friendly against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa in limbo.
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Following a hint to restrain the Stars from honouring the said match in Durban next Tuesday, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, went out of his way to threaten that the ministry would not sanction the match until the FA made available details of the contract for the match.
According to the minister, it did not make economic sense for the Stars to honour the match if, indeed, there was no financial reward from South Africa as the contract presented by the GFA seemed to portray.
He emphasised that the Ministry’s management board decided not to sanction the match on that ground and even vowed to freeze future friendly matches involving the Black Stars if the amount involved was less than $500,000.
Nii Lantey contended that if the Indomitable Lions of Cameroun could attract $500,000 appearance fees in similar matches then he expected the Black Stars to earn more since the status of the Ghana team and Ghanaian players were higher than that of Cameroun.
The minister, therefore, maintained that his outfit would only sanction the game after being satisfied with the monetary consideration.
However, some officials of the GFA have called the minister’s bluff with a resolve to honour the match without any intimidation from any quarters.
The vice president of the GFA, George Afriyie, explained to the Graphic Sports yesterday that Ghana still had to honour the match once the contract had already been signed.
He stressed that once the GFA had made a commitment by signing the contract, the Stars were bound to honour the match to avoid a fine and sanctions.
The GFA inisists that though there is no financial benefit, the match which is at the instance of South Africa, would offer a good test for the Stars ahead of their crunch World Cup qualifier against the Pharaohs of Egypt next month.
To ensure sanity, GFA officials were expected to finalise the issue with the minister in Tamale yesterday.
The Stars are scheduled to leave for South Africa on Saturday.
