Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, has bemoaned government’s decision to airlift an amount of $3m in cash to Brazil as payment for the Black Stars’ World Cup appearance fee and other allowances.
In an interview on Citi FM, Deputy Minister of Sports, Joseph Yamin, disclosed that “Government had to mobilize the money and send it by chartered flight to Brazil” because the players had threatened to boycott a training session in preparation for the Portugal-Ghana match.
Yamin said: “The players insisted that they would want fiscal cash… Government had to mobilize the money and a chartered flight to Brazil. The money is in excess of $3 million.”
The Black Stars are up against Portugal on Thursday, but reports of player indiscipline and delay in honouring monetary obligations appear to overshadow the crucial Group G against the Cristiano Ronaldo inspired Portuguese side.
Government succumbed to the players’ demands after they threatened not to honour Thursday’s match and even caused the official bus that was to transport them to the Natal airport to delay for almost three hours.
Speaking to the issue during a panel discussion on Peace FM’s premium morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, Kweku Baako said ‘flying’ the money to Brazil was ‘risky’.
Apart from the plane being at the mercy of any attack, he said the security of the players was also at stake.
“It endangers their security…” he indicated and added that “it is so unimaginable that the state will allow money to be transported on a plane to the players. It shouldn’t have happened. Those receiving it should even be careful especially as it has been broadcast. The plane could also be endangered. The whole thing is ridiculous. The whole world will be laughing at us because it is inept”.