Debate Over World Cup Budget Premature – Nyantakyi

Kwesi Nyantakyi, president of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) says the debate over the Black Stars' World Cup budget is premature.

He told GNA Sports that “The budget is yet to be submitted to the Chief of Staff because we are still discussing it, so I have been wondering why the debate.

“It may be reviewed upward or downward, so I think people are jumping the gun over the budgetary proposal for the Black Stars”.

He said that budgets differ from country to country and it was wrong to make direct comparison with others.

“We must bear in mind that some countries pay winning bonus, whilst others do not and winning bonuses also differ. Some also take along a huge staff of medical and technical staff to the competition and others do not. So it is absolutely wrong to compare our budgets to that of others.

“The European budget is always different from African budget due to the kind of preparations and the way their national teams are run. We also have a different system of running our national team so I think it is wrong to compare.”

On whether the Stars would be paid winning bonuses in dollars following new policy directives from government over payment in dollars, Nyantakyi said there may be exemptions to the directives.

“It would be difficult to pay someone like Kevin Prince Boateng in cedis, because he does not stay in Ghana. It is an issue we have to discuss thoroughly to find a way out.

“But we have plans of reducing cash payments to the players because it is also very dangerous. We are discussing with uniBank Ghana Limited to find an effective way of paying the players through visa card or master card.”

There are speculations that 20 million dollars have been allocated to the Black Stars' World Cup campaign.

Source: GNA