The Ministry of Youth and Sports has moved to clarify the confusion over the institution responsible for paying the salaries of national team coaches.
Former Black Stars coach Kwasi Appiah has for the past few days been on a collision course with the GFA, demanding his salary arrears.
The GFA through its spokesperson, Henry Asante Twum has conceded that the coach is indeed owed an amount of money but was quick to add that it is an obligation of the state to pay the remuneration of national team coaches, not the association.
Henry Asante Twum in the statement suspected mischief and hypocrisy from Appiah who was with the team for more than a decade and had a perfect idea of how issues of salaries are handled.
"The GFA does not pay the coach - it’s the state that pays the coach. The GFA is the employer of the head coach of the national team but his salary is paid by the state. He wrote to the GFA and we forwarded his letter to the ministry. It is the ministry that must pay him, not the GFA.
"Kwasi Appiah has been in and out of the Black Stars for so many years and he knows that it is not the FA that pays him. It’s very strange to read what is going around because it’s not the FA that pays the head coach of Black Stars, it is the Government of Ghana. That has been the constitution. The Government owes him." Despite this intervention by the FA, Appiah and his camp maintain that the reported $185,000 is owed them by the FA and not the government.
The justification for the rather strange stance by the ex-coach is that he signed a contract with the FA and not the Ministry.
Appiah says he is unaware of the fact that the Black Stars is a property of the state and the FA is more or less a caretaker.
“I did not sign any contract with the government or the ministries, I signed with the Football Association, I know the government supports the FA in payments of players’ bonuses and travel funds but I am not supposed to be chasing the Ministry of Sports because I do not have a contract with them but the FA.
But an aide to the Sports Minister, Kofi Asare Brako has explained that while it is an undeniable fact the contract is signed between the FA and the coach, it is the Ministry that pays his salaries.
He appealed to Kwasi Appiah to exercise restraint as plans are already underway to have his money paid. Abatay, as he is widely known, urged Appiah not to forget how helpful the country has been to him.
“It is the Ministry that owes the coach. The ministry is the supervising body for the football and sports in general but it is the FA that employs the coach. The FA employs him and recommends to the ministry for the ministry to pay. Kwasi Appiah is on the neck of the GFA because he has a contract with them but actually. The ministry admits 100% owing Kwasi Appiah”.
“The nation has done Kwasi Appiah a lot of good. For close to 24 months we’ve been constantly paying him. His contract could have expired in April last year and ideally we could have extended his contract by just three months but the contract was extended by six months”.
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