Citi Sports has come across the detailed breakdown of the $9.6 million made available for the 2014 World Cup. Of interest in the breakdown are fees earmarked for protocol and management members of the Black Stars management committee in the preliminary stages of the competition.
The Black Stars qualification for Brazil 2014 has come with a ferocious debate about how much is prudent to be spent on the campaign in June.
The document Citi Sports has intercepted shows that the seven officials who make up the Black Stars management committee will get more bonuses than the players themselves during the group stages.
While the players are due $15,000 for winning every game, each committee member gets $15,800.
This amount rises to $21,000 for each member when the team gets to the round of 16 and then to $26,285 at the quarter-final stage.
A semi-final berth gets each member $31,571 and should Ghana reach the final, they get $36,714.
Also of interest is $10,000 allocated for foodstuffs. We understand that the GFA have previously had complaints from players that they miss local Ghanaian food when they travel for tournaments in faraway lands.
And then, we have an amount of $150,000 allocated for ?protocol.? It is not clear what protocol will be needed at the World Cup when Fifa always makes provisions for transport, logistics and accommodation throughout the three week tournament.
Something that catches the eye in the breakdown is the $30,000 allocation for laundry, although, again Fifa takes care of all of that.
It would be recalled that before cabinet approved the GHC 24, 677, 025 (about $9.5 million budget for the Black Starts campaign in the June 12 World cup, news went viral the GFA had budgeted a whopping $20 million for the tournament.
Though the GFA and the Ministry of Sports had vehemently denied it, grapevine reports indicates that they submitted the much criticized $ 20 million dollars budget to government and it was slashed to $ 9.5 million due to the widespread public outcry.
The Black Stars players also demanded that they are paid in dollars, despite the Bank of Ghana?s directives to halt trading in dollars to shore up the ailing local currency, the cedi. The demand was however, back by GFA President, MrKwesiNyantakyi.
The Stars are also said to be demanding $100,000 apiece as appearance fee for the 2014 World Cup, a demand that was justified by a letter submitted to the GFA by Captain AsamoahGyan on behalf of the national team players.
Full details of the breakdown coming soon?
Source: Gary Al-Smith/Citifmonline
