Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa wants government to redirect its investments into football from the fixation with the Black Stars.
Okudzeto Ablakwa was speaking on the floor of Parliament after Sports Minister Mustapha Ussif informed the house on Ghana’s $3m expenditure at AFCON 2023.
”Mr. Speaker, the point must be made that the $3m that we have spent for just these three matches, the abysmal performances, is in excess of what some countries have spent for the entire tournament.”
”Nigeria (budgeted) $1.3 million, Zambia (budgeted) $2.1 million. It’s open source information, go on the internet. Zambia presented $2.1million to their Parliament for approval. And here we are, (spending) $3million with no value for money.”
Mr. Okudzeto also questioned what he believed to be the unconscionable spending on AFCON and World Cup Qualifiers.
”Mr. Speaker, the I am referencing document the Sports Minister submitted to this house, look at how much we spent on qualifiers; the two matches played between Ghana and Angola cost us 7.4 million cedis, Ghana versus Madagascar cost us 13.2 million cedis. Airlifting supporters to Qatar 2022 World Cup cost us 5.3 million cedis.” he continued
”We are throwing millions into supporting the Black Stars yet we are not getting anything. Look at the state of our pitches. We don’t even have a single FIFA standard pitch. Youth development is gone, the local league is gone.”
Following Ghana’s elimination from AFCON 2023, the NDC MP first published details of Ghana’s AFCON expenditure and the initial budget approval.
In a social media post, the NDC MP published an official government document that showed the country allocated in excess of $8.5m for the tournament in Côte d’Ivoire.
“From latest unimpeachable, irrefutable and indisputable intercepted documents in my possession — I can boldly confirm that the Ghanaian government and the GFA put together and agreed on a shocking AFCON preparation and participation budget of US$8,506,450.00,” he wrote.
“This hefty $8.5million translates into a colossal GHS105million at current exchange.
Note that the GHS105million is entirely separate from the GHS27.9million spent on the qualifiers.
The figure US$8,506,450.00 is contained in an intercepted letter from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, dated 2nd January, 2024.
“It is addressed to the Minister of Finance requesting part payment of US$5,071,840.36 from the total Black Stars budget of US$8,506,450.00. The request letter in issue is signed by Chief Director of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Mr. William Kartey on behalf of the Minister, Hon. Mustapha Ussif.”
On Wednesday, Sports Minister Mustapha Ussif confirmed the budgeted amount – $8.5million, and what was released by the Finance Ministry – $5,071,840.36, to be true.
Of the said amount, the Minister confirmed that the GFA and the Sports Ministry spent over $3 million in eleven days at the tournament.
DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Hondy Multimedia Group of Company Limited.
