Mustapha Ussif, Sports Minister
The country’s sports governing body, Ministry of Youth and Sports, has rubbished wild claims that players of the Black Stars and officials will pocket qualification bonus should they qualify to the last 16 stage of the competition.
It has come up that each player of the team would be entitled to $30,000 as qualification bonus if they beat Comoros this evening in Garoua.
But a deep throat source at the ministry has poured cold water on the report.
The source added that the ministry’s winning bonus payment plan per match remains unchanged and found the wild speculation preposterous.
This writer’s further checks prove that there is no such financial arrangement with the team.
“There is no such arrangement like qualification bonus. It is never true that the players are taking $30,000 as qualification bonus,” the source said.
“What we know and sticking to is the winning bonuses for qualifiers, and during tournaments,” the source added.
The source also denied claims of the $20,000 payment as appearance fee for the ongoing tourney in Cameroon.
The Black Stars’ below average performance coupled with the high financial figures in the Central Africa competition has generated heated debate among the football fraternity.
Ghana have gone past two games – Morocco and Gabon, losing the first and drawing the second 1-1 in that order with just a point.
Meanwhile, the Black Stars face Comoros this evening in their last group game.
A win will see the Milovan Rajevac men advance to the next stage of the competition and likely to face Cameroon or Senegal depending on the other results.