News:
March 17, 2014
Minister of Information and Media Relations, Mahama Ayariga has emphatically stated that government will not fund any of the various supporters’ unions who will seek for government support to back the Black Stars in Brazil.
He further discredited reports that government will airlift about one thousand (1,000) supporters to the World Cup host country in June when the tournament kicks off.
Speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem programme on Monday, Hon. Mahama Ayariga, who is also the Member of Parliament for Bawku stated that cabinet’s approval of GH¢24.6M budget for Black Stars does not include any funding for supporters’ unions.
“There is not even 1pesewa in the approved budget for any supporters’ union…pesewa was not budgeted for any supporters. Organisations and supporters union must look elsewhere for other sources of funding for their activities. There is no budget to send people to Brazil,” he noted.
Cabinet approved GH¢10,500,000 to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) as budget for the national football team’s participation in the preliminary stage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
An amount of GH¢14,177,025 has also been provided to cover the team’s expenses when they qualify for later stages of the competition. This sums up to GH¢24,677,025 after the FA presented a provisional budget of $20 million to Government for the tournament.
Hon. Mahama Ayariga said as it stands now government is not in the position to spend money on any group of persons adding that “..Cooperate Ghana can support supporters to go. If you use public money, how do you even select the people to go…which supporters should be selected because everybody is a supporter of the Black Stars. These are serious issues we should think through”.
Ghanamps.gov.gh