<<Print>>

The Minister of Sports, Mahama Ayariga has debunked claims that government of Ghana and his ministry paid for fans to be airlifted to Equatorial Guinea to support the Black Stars at the just ended AFCON 2015.

According to him, even though he heard some supporters were being airlifted to support the Black Stars, he is not aware of who sponsored them and how much was involved.

Information making the rounds indicate Government of Ghana spent over six million dollars ($6million) to airlift about 250 fans to Equatorial Guinea.

But speaking in an interview on PEACE FM's Morning Show ‘Kokrokoo’, Mahama Ayariga said his ministry did not sponsor supporters to Equatorial Guinea.

He intimated: “the minister of youth and sports did not spend money on transporting supporters to Equatorial Guinea. Not one pesewa of the ministry was approved for anybody to go and watch the football. We didn’t get ourselves involved in that and so how they got their funds and whoever was contracted; we didn’t have anything to do with that”.

"I believe GNPC and some other entities were involved" he indicated and urged the media to go and look for the actual company that sponsored the supporters to Equatorial Guinea since that is not part of his work, adding: “I feel sad that the conversation has been reduced to this level; I thought the conversation will be about the performance of the Black Stars. I thought that will be the concentration; what lesson did we learn, the sacrifices they (players) made and so on…I thought that with this useful airtime that we have, that will be the concentration…”