Ghana’s Sports Minister clarifies $25 million funding for Black Stars

 Ghana’s Sports Minister Mustapha Ussif has responded to the public uproar concerning the $25 million needed to fund the campaigns of the senior national football team, the Black Stars during the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations tournament and the FIFA World Cup tournament.Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo organized a breakfast meeting on Monday at the seat of government to raise funds for Black Stars and other national teams.The meeting was attended by CEO’s from Corporate Ghana and other State Institutions to raise an amount of $25 million for the campaigns.Government has already committed $10 million of the amount and formed a four-member committee headed by the Sports Minister to solicit for the remaining $15 million.The news drew criticism from the general public with many describing the amount as exorbitant.Mustapha Ussif in an interview has clarified the misconception in public on the $25 million funding indicating it is to cater for all the national teams and not only for the Black Stars.The budget we have done is not only for Black Stars. It is for all our national team activities from now till 2022. We have 8 world cup qualifiers, the CHAN team will be playing qualifiers, the womens team as well, and we have to participate at the AFCON, and if we qualify for the world cup, we will participate there as well, he told Citi TV.We have U-17, U-20, U-23 and the senior national teams and same for the women and all these teams have tournaments to play.We have done estimates for all our national teams and we think that we need about $25 million to cater for all their expenses”, he added.Ghana last won its last Afcon title in 1982 and will be seeking to break that jinx in next year’s tournament to be staged in Cameroon.