Former president, John Agyekum Kuffour, has said Ghanaians overly complain about Black Stars bonuses.
He explained that monies given to the players are part of the government’s effort to take good care of the players after lending them from their respective clubs.
He further advised that Ghanaians should not take a blind look at the sacrifice the players make in honour of the nation.
“Since the game depends on these individuals, there should be in the interest of the nation to give due care in terms of medical care and dietary care, the insurance we must give in a way excite their sense of national duty to come and sacrifice to get the Ghana team competitive mode to go internationally to go and win cups…But even as I’m talking about this care, when we give them some bonus, we(Ghanaians) tend to talk too much. “How is one person getting 5,000?'” he told Sports Journalist Daniel Kwaku Yeboah in an interview as quoted by Ghanaweb.
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“…But when the player goes back to his club, he is been paid perhaps 100,000 dollars or even some pushing to half a billion a month. So we should get things in proper balance, tressure these youth who come in. They are proud to wear the national jersey to play for us but just because they would love to be hounoured with Black Stars jersey doesn’t mean we shouldn’t also see what they may be sacrificing in honour of the entire nation.” he added.
In 2014, the government airlifted money from Ghana to settle the Black Stars bonuses during the 2014 FIFA World Cup after they threatened to boycott the last group game against Portugal.
The contingent was to earn $100, 000.00 each as an appearance fee. The GFA could not settle the players as promised which led to the government stepping in to prevent a boycott of the team’s final group game.
Ghanaians have since, been critical about bonuses given to the team and are in constant demand of a declaration of Black Stars’ budget for the tournaments.
The 2014 World Cup fiasco led to the government appointing a commission of enquiry to investigate the disastrous World Cup and also recommend ways of going about bonuses in the future.
