The Minister for Information, Mahama Ayariga has expressed that the budget for the Black Stars for the World Cup in Brazil was cut down to satisfy the interest of many Ghanaians.
The Ghana Football Association through the Ministry of Sports presented a budget of $22 million to the Ghana government ahead of the World in Brazil.
But after a public outcry for several weeks, cabinet has slashed the amount to $9.8 million and the Information Minister says it was done to satisfy Ghanaians who believe public funds should be used judiciously.
“We had to cut down the World budget to live up to the public expectation on the use of public funds.
“I think the World Cup budget in the previous years were high because there weren’t many other pressing issues, like we have today and moreover, government might have had a lot of resources to cover everything in the budget,” Ayariga told Metro FM.
“After going through the budget, we got to know that certain items are not too pressing, so such items have been removed and also GFA’s delegate for the tournament has been slashed down.
“We did everything with the FA by taking item by item, so no one can say it was imposed on them by the government and they were even told to get sponsorship to cover other items the state couldn’t afford.
Ghana sent a budget of $16 million to the 2006 World Cup in Germany and it increased to $19 million in 2010 during the World Cup in South Africa, but it has now reduced to about 50% of the previous World Cup budget.
The FIFA World Cup begins on 12th June in Brazil, but Ghana will play their opening game against the USA on 16th June in Natal.
Source: allsports.com.gh