Ghana to build soccer academies with $8m World Cup cash

Ghana will use proceeds from its participation in the 2014 World Cup to build soccer academies across the country, the Sports Minister Mahama Ayariga has revealed.

The Black Stars are expected to earn about $8m from their participation in the tournament in Brazil even though they crashed out at the group stage of the competition.

The Ghana Football Association has informed the ministry that monies accrued from the competition will be used to develop mini academies across the country to help discover more football talents.

The projects will be managed by government as the GFA has agreed that the proceeds from the tournament will be released to government to embark on the project.

“The Hon. Minister announced that the Ghana Football Association has written to him to inform Government that the GFA intends to make proceeds from the 2014 World Cup available to the Ministry of Youth and Sports for the establishment of Football Academies around the country,” Ayariga wrote on his Facebook page.

The new concept is a departure from the previous promise of building facilities to be available to other sports in Ghana, but the GFA insists it falls in line with the policy of helping other sports too in the country.

“We have informed government of our plans already and we are happy to move forward in this direction. This is not different from what we said previously,” Ghana FA spokesman Ibrahim Sannie Daara told Joy FM.

“The pitches to be built in this concept of mini-soccer academies across the country can also be used by the other sports in Ghana, which will also immensely benefit them as well as football.”

Ghana are rebuilding their squad after their disastrous outing at the 2014 World Cup.