The former minister for Youth and Sports, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, says no Ghana Football Association (GFA) official benefited from the money that was flown to Brazil to pay the Black Stars players.<\/p>\n
The government had airlifted the money, reported to be around 3 million dollars, to Brazil to pay the appearance fees of the players of the Black Stars after they had threatened to boycott Ghana\u2019s final group game against Portugal.<\/p>\n
The players were reportedly paid an amount of\u00a0 100 thousand dollars each, with reports claiming that officials of the Ghana Football Association \u00a0also received a percentage of the amount.<\/p>\n
However, Mr Afriyie Ankrah, speaking to Paul Adom Otchere on Good Evening Ghana on Sunday, refuted the claims, saying that only the players and the members of the technical team received the money, adding that no GFA official had received some the money.<\/p>\n
According to him, the money, which was paid only to the players was paid in cash because the players reneged on their agreement to have their winning bonuses paid into their Unibank accounts.<\/p>\n
He also said the decision to pay the money to the players in cash was taken \u00a0based on the advice of the coach Akwasi Appiah.<\/p>\n
The former sports minister also denied accusations that he flew business class with his family while the players flew coach on the same plane.<\/p>\n
He stated that his family, while they did join him in Brazil later, were not on the same flight as the players.<\/p>\n
He said that the players \u201chad a lot of fun\u201d on the flight, saying that most the players had decided not to sit in business class, although \u201cthere was enough space,\u201d preferring to fly coach, where they could \u201cstretch their seats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reports had also claimed that the minister and a player had engaged in intimate relations with some of the female ambassadors.<\/p>\n
Mr. Afriyie Ankrah again denied the claims, saying he did set eyes on any of the ambassadors throughout their stay in Brazil.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only time I went to the ambassador hotel,\u2026, the female ambassadors and Dumelo had gone to camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the entire period I was in Brazil till today, I have not set my eyes, not even once, on any of those two female ambassadors.\u201d<\/p>\n
He further denied claims that Agyeman Badu, the Black Stars player in question, could not have been intimate with any of the female ambassadors, as the players had not had any interactions with the ambassadors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fan park was not in Maceio (where the players were based), the players were never at the fan park and could not have interacted with anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that unless \u201cyou had accreditation you couldn\u2019t have access to the players.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By: Edwin Kwakofi\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The former minister for Youth and Sports, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, says no Ghana Football Association (GFA) official benefited from the money that was flown to Brazil to pay the Black Stars players. The government had airlifted the money, reported to be around 3 million dollars, to Brazil to pay the appearance fees of the players […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":5742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[29,3,577,1606,38,157],"yoast_head":"\n