Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, Minister of Youth and Sports
The sports ministry has rubbished claims that the Ghana FA was paid more than what it revealed as gains from the Russia friendly insisting only $150,000 was paid to the local federation.
This comes after some media men campaigning for the ministry had claimed last week that the $150,000 declared by the GFA is false.
This implied that the GFA was being dishonest about the gains from Tuesday's match, insisting the amount has been under-declared.
The campaigners for the sports ministry started making the claims that they had leaked documents showing that $327,000 was paid to the GFA.
According to them, the Ghana FA received $150,000 as the first instalment with $177,000 to be paid later, totalling $327,000.
However, the Sports Ministry has rubbished the claims with the government agency's PRO revealing that $177,000 was the total amount paid by the Russian Football Union, but that Russian authorities deducted $27,000 as VAT, bringing the amount to $150,000.
“We have a copy of the contract with us (Ministry) and I think for the first time we should congratulate the GFA for making available the contract of the friendly to us," the Sports Ministry's PRO Otto Plahar told Kasapa FM.
"The contract sum is a total of $177,000 and $27,000 as VAT goes to the Russian Football Union with the remainder ($150,000) coming to the GFA.
“Let me say emphatically that the figure coming to GFA is $150,000. I believe it is important that when issues of this nature crop up, we take our time before putting anything in the [public] domain.”
The Ghana FA has been at loggerheads with the Sports Ministry over the control of the national teams which has led to recent clashes in the media.
The Ghana FA claims the Sports Minister, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, has led a campaign to demonize the federation with slanted leaks to the media meant to make the GFA unpopular.
Last month, a newspaper close to the minister revealed that leaks from the Sports Ministry shows the GFA pays bribes during matches of the national teams.
The GFA denied the claim and had since disagreed with the minister over several issues including call-ups of players for the national team.
It is believed most of these ideas of interfering in the call-ups was mooted by the ministry's surrogates in the media who have carried out the hatchet job of scandalizing the GFA in the media.
The latest move by the ministry shows that it is seeking to disassociate themselves from their media supporters to avoid the claim that they intentionally leaked the document to put the GFA in a bad light.
The issue became public just after the GFA had presented the to contract to the ministry with all hands pointing at the ministry as the source of the leak to demonize the GFA.
Ghana lost to Russia 1-0 in the friendly on Tuesday as they prepare to face Uganda next month at the start of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
