Indemnity payments not new – Osei

Ghana Football Association Executive Committee member Wilfred Kwaku Osei has responded to allegations that the Sports Ministry paid indemnities to countries that played the Black Stars in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

The GFA is said to have spent over $420,000 as unclassified payment in the 2014 World Cup qualifier against Egypt, according to a document chanced on by sports newspaper Ghana Sports at the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

The Ministry's expenditure for the 2013 fiscal year revealed Ghana spent $400,000 on unclassified payment and $16,000 on indemnity payments during the Black Stars home and away matches with the Pharaohs of Egypt during the campaign.

When the Black Stars hosted Zambia in Kumasi for instance, $100,000 and $16,000 were used as unclassified and indemnity payments for the match, which Ghana won 2-1 to remain top of the group. Against Sudan at home and away, $100,000 was spent on unclassified payment whereas $85,000 and $14,000 were used for unclassified and indemnity payments for the matches with Lesotho.

Overall, Ghana spent over $700,000 on items described as "unclassified and indemnity payments" on the Black Stars qualifiers for the Brazil 2014 World Cup campaign.

The FA’s finance boss, Mr Osei, speaking to Class Sports said, these payments were a common practice among all other federations in the sporting fraternity

“I want to relax on this issue but what I can say is indemnity is not only paid by the Football Association, indemnity is paid by all federations,” he stated.