Gov't does not pay for Stars friendlies - Afriyie

Black Stars Management Committee Chairman, George Afriyie claims the Ghana FA has never used government funding to pay for the senior national team’s friendly matches.

It would be recalled that during the Dzamefe Commission of Inquiry settings, there were reports that the Kwesi Nyantakyi-led GFA had included the Black Stars friendly against Holland in its budget for the 2014 World Cup.

But, the new GFA Vice President insists the nation’s football governing body only took monies from the Black Stars sponsor GNPC for a training tour and not the friendly, which was organized with funding from an independent match-agent.

“We have never taken money from government to play friendly matches. We took money from who? In the Holland game, the Black Stars had a training tour and a friendly match. The friendly was organized by an agent and not the Dutch FA or government. So, this thing is clear,” Mr. Afriyie told Accra based Citi FM.

According to Mr. Afriyie, the match agents for the recent Ghana versus Canada friendly paid the GFA $100,000 before the Black Stars’ arrival in Washington for the test match.

Each player and technical team member received an amount of $5,000 as appearance fee for featuring in that friendly match.