After several rounds of talks between the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ghana Football Association (GFA), the nation’s football governing body, regarding the remuneration of the Black Stars, the road is now clear for the payment of the players’ bonuses.
A probe into the delay of the unpaid World Cup bonuses revealed that the players demanded that they are paid in hard currency (US dollar), as promised them before the Mundial in South Africa.
On the team’s return from the ‘conquest’, the Ministry of Youth and Sports decided to pay the team in the local currency (Cedis), but the players insisted that they be paid in hard currency, as per the ‘contract’.
A further probe into the matter points to the fact that the Ministry was lethargic in fulfilling the financial promise, taking into account the huge difference in the purchase of the dollar to the cedi equivalent.
The GFA, eventually, contacted the Youth and Sports Ministry, took it upon itself to accept the outstanding bonus in cedis, and promised to buy the dollar equivalent to settle the matter, a source at the FA told our investigative team. That implies that the FA had to cough up additional money to enable it buy the dollar equivalent to defray Stars’ outstanding financial obligation.
According to the source, relatives of the players were supposed to sign on behalf of the players, most of whom ply their trade in foreign lands, for the cash.
However, the matter took a different twist yesterday, as our roving team was reliably informed that the cash had been handed to a GFA official, who would transport it to the players in South Africa, where they are currently based, preparing for their Nations Cup qualifier against Swaziland this Sunday.
Each player is entitled to a mouth-watering amount close to $100,000, being outstanding winning bonuses of their games against Serbia and the US at the 2010 South Africa World Cup.
The Stars, the only African side to qualify from the group stage of the 2010 World Cup, finished as quarter finalists.
