Ex-Ghana President, John Agyekum Kufuor is urging football fans to tone down on discussions regarding financial rewards paid to the Black Stars and rather support the team to deliver.
It would recalled that fans lashed at the Sports Ministry for agreeing to pay each Black Stars player an appearance fee of $20,000 for featuring at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, considering Ghana’s poor showing in Cameroon.
But ex-President Kufuor, who is a former Chairman of Asante Kotoko, insists patriotism should not be used as an excuse to deny the Black Stars players their financial reward, since modern football is big business, where players being the main actors are well remunerated.
“Football has become business. The players, many of them are playing internationally and well paid by their teams,” ex-President Kufuor told Accra based Peace FM.
“I’m not saying Ghana should compete with these clubs but the point is, since the game depends on these individuals it should be in the nation’s interest to give them good care.”
“When we give them bonus, we tend to talk too much. You hear them say why is one player taking $5000? We should treasure these youth, who come in to play for us,” he concluded.
Ghanaians football fans have often sought to scrutinise the bonus and appearance fees paid to Black Stars players, considering the fact that the senior national team has failed to win a trophy since 1982.
