Government would have spent about $15 million to host the 2017 African Cup of Nations (AFCON), according to the former Minister of Youth and Sports, Mahama Ayariga.
[contextly_sidebar id=”CM2Mob0XnxLGsjkL8i2KLHzHHYRFs8uY”]Ghana lost out on the right to host the next AFCON after Confederation of African Football (CAF) opted for 2012 co-hosts Gabon.
The reaction to CAF’s decision has been mixed but several people who celebrated Ghana‘s loss argued that the country was not prepared financially to host the tournament.
However, the former Minister who was part of Ghana’s team that presented the 2017 AFCON bid to CAF allayed fears the tournament would have been expensive for the country, insisting that checks before the bid which was submitted showed the tournament was not going to cost the nation more than $15 million.
“When I had a discussion with the President about putting in a bid when CAF announced that Libya had withdrawn, the first thing he asked was how much it would cost to host the tournament. I didn’t go far. I simply requested from South Africa, the report on the tournament they just held there [in 2013]. It wasn’t more than $15 million. It was the GFA that generated the information and brought it to me,” Mr Ayariga said on Citi FM‘s news analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday.
“We have the facilities to host AFCON”
The former Minister argued that the cost of hosting the 2017 AFCON would have been much lower than that of the 2008 tournament hosted in Ghana because of the existence of stadiums and necessary infrastructure to host a successful tournament.
“We already have the stadium, the infrastructure and GetFund has already built the hotels so if we are going to host this tournament we don’t have to build new hostels and stadia so when I sat down with the president I told him that, this shouldn’t cost us more than 15 million cedis” he said.
We won’t pay transport, elimination reduces costs further
The former Sports Minister also added that host nations are not required to pay for the transportation of the participating nations into the country.
He also stated that with teams being eliminated as the tournament progresses, there is reduced cost for the host nation.
“If there are 16 teams and each team has a 35-man delegation. If a country decides to bring extra, they pay for the extra people. In AFCON you pay your airfare to the country. The host does not pay the airfare to the country. It is only the internal travel that is taken care of. These are the costs. After the fourteen days there’s also elimination so half of the people would have to leave, bringing the cost down further,” he added.
By: Benjamin Epton Owusu and Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana