SWAG prez fights huge appearance fees

The president of the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG), Mr Kwabena Yeboah, has kicked against the outrageous payment of appearance fee to players and officials of the Black Stars during international tournaments.

The SWAG president stressed that paying as much as $100,000 appearance fee to administrators of the Black Stars must change to enable the nation to put funds generated at tournaments to good use.

Speaking at the 47th SWAG Awards in Accra last week, the veteran journalist urged the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and the Ministry of Youth and Sports to take a critical look at paying huge sums of money to players and management committee members of the Black Stars and rather invest tournament funds for the benefit of the nation.

“We certainly have to take a second look at paying as much as $100,000 to some management members of the GFA,” Mr Yeboah stated.

The SWAG president’s call was necessitated by the $100,000 appearance fee reportedly paid to players and Black Stars Management Committee members at the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.

It will be recalled that Black Stars players also demanded $100,000 each in appearance fee at the Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup, resulting in the infamous carriage of $3million in a chartered flight to Brazil following a player revolt.

The concept of paying appearance fees to players was introduced at Ghana’s FIFA World Cup debut at Germany 2006 where each player received 50,000 euros as appearance fee.

The tradition continued at the South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup where each player reportedly received $75,000 as appearance fee. On each occasion, Black Stars Management Committee members and other officials who accompanied the team also earned some unspecified amounts of money.