Sports Ministry clears air on GFA elections but silent on depriving Kwesi Appiah, others of salaries

The alacrity with which the Sports Ministry came out to rubbish claims of its interference in the GFA elections and its continued silence on its failure to settle two months salaries arrears of Black Stars coaches makes it easy for one to conclude that the embattled organization is more fixated with its image than actually executing its mandate which includes ensuring that handlers of the various national teams receive their entitled salaries and bonuses.

It appears the Ministry is reeling from its profligacy in Egypt as reports emerged last week that neither coach Kwesi Appiah who is entitled to a monthly salary of $35,000 nor his assistants has received a penny from the Ministry as salaries in the last two months.

Earlier this week Graphic Sports reported that attempts to get an official reaction from the Ministry regarding the development have proven futile with the ministry unwilling to voice out the truth regarding the speculations.

On Wednesday, another damming report surfaced that contrary to FIFA’s zero tolerance for government’s interfering in activities of associations, Sports Minister Isaac Asiamah has taken it upon himself to impose a new President on the Ghana Football Association with Nana Yaw Amponsah being his preferred candidate.

Hours after the news broke, the Ministry released a statement rubbishing the allegations in a letter signed by a supposed ‘aide to the Minister’ who according to reports has usurp the responsibilities of the Ministry’s official spokesperson.

Excerpts of the statement read “The attention of the Youth and Sports Ministry has been drawn to widespread reportage, that the Hon. Minister is masterminding the banning of candidates for the Ghana FA presidential elections in favour of Nana Yaw Amponsah.

“The Ministry wishes to reiterate that, the Normalisation Committee has been given the mandate to organize and conduct elections for the new GFA executives and the Ministry has no way interfered in its activities”.

Conspicuously missing from the six-paragraphed statement was the salaries allegedly owed the Black Stars coaches who may have to resort to other means of feeding their families if the allegations are true.

Again by failing to pay the salary of Coach Kwesi Appiah, the Ministry is denying some retired footballers of their monthly stipends as the coach in 2017 dedicated a percentage of his monthly income to them.