Funding of Black Stars, supporters waste of state resources?

It has become a common feature that anytime the Black Stars return from any major international competition, their budget becomes one of the focal points for discussions, particularly when the team performs abysmally.

The figures that come out of these discussions make one wonder whether it is worth it for the state to sponsor any international competitions, particularly the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), considering the prize money at stake.

This year, the prize money for winning the AFCON trophy is a paltry $7m but it speculated that the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, had told the media in Cote d’Ivoire that the team had spent more than $1.6m for just their one-week participation in the tournament.

Even more worrying was the disclosure by the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, of some shocking revelations of the budget the minister presented to Parliament covering the Black Stars' qualifiers of the 2023 AFCON and other expenses. These figures must have every concerned Ghanaian worried, considering the current economic situation in the country.

Per the MP’s disclosure, the country spent more than GHc27m on playing qualifying matches together with airlifting supporters to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, as well as payment of the sign-on fees and salary for Coach Chris Hughton.

These figures, particularly of the AFCON make you wonder whether it’s worth spending so much just to qualify for a tournament whose ultimate prize money is just $7m and whether there was the need to spend taxpayer’s money just to airlift supporters to go and cheer the team up.

Since one will conveniently argue that no amount can buy the joy the Ghanaian will get from victories, as well as the unity it brings to the nation, we are at a point where we need to reassess ourselves and determine whether we should continue to spend our limited resources on just the Black Stars who always pay us back with poor results.

During the era of Abedi Pele, whenever the Black Stars went to international tournaments, we were guaranteed joy from winning matches even though the players were not given the kind of treatment we give to the current players.

I remember instances where some players recounted funding their trips from Europe just to come and honour the national call-up with the promise of being reimbursed but that never happened.

Despite that, the players remained committed and ready to die for the national flag. They often played their hearts out all the time to make sure they brought smiles to the faces of Ghanaians. Yet, the state never footed the bills of accompanying supporters.

However, today, supporting the Black Stars has become a lucrative business and this is why Abraham Boakye ‘One Man Supporter’ could boldly come out to pledge his allegiance to another political party because his supporter group was denied an opportunity to travel to Cote d’Ivoire.

Whereas in other jurisdictions, football fans work hard to save towards travelling to support the national team, the story is different here.

Not only has it become an avenue for politicians to fly party supporters and apparatchiks to compensate them for helping them win power but also to distribute some of the hard-earned taxes to party faithful.

Per Mr Okudzeto’s revelations, the Ministry of Youth and Sports spent over GHc5.3m just to airlift supporters to Qatar to support the Black Stars at the World Cup in 2022 and I believe the figures to the AFCON could be more considering the number of supporters who travelled to Cote d’Ivoire.

This phenomenon, which started during the 2006 World Cup in Germany, has continued throughout and generated some controversies, particularly during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil which necessitated the establishment of the Justice Senyo Dzemefe Commission to investigate some of the things that went wrong.

After spending so much money on the commission to come out with their findings and recommendations, it appears that as usual, the hard work of the venerable high court judge has been swept under the carpet and we are back to doing the same old things.

I don’t understand why the recommendations, which among other things directed the state not to meddle in flying of supporters to international competitions, would not be adhered to.

It’s been almost two decades since we started the practice of flying supporters to international tournaments and I dare say if we have to put together all the amount that has been spent on the various tournaments till now, I am sure that amount could have built a factory that would employ a lot more people or perhaps invested into something substantial and of economic importance for this country.

What is even more shocking is that these supporters are paid for travelling to cheer the team. The information available indicates that each supporter who went to Cote d’Ivoire for just one week walked home with a cool $400.

For how long will we continue to rape the limited state resources to the detriment of the larger public? It is time our duty bearers are made aware that the public purse cannot be treated as spoils of war but must be put to good use for the larger benefit of the country.

We must also demand accountability from our politicians and completely ban the use of public resources to fund the leisure of people who travel in the name of going to cheer the Black Stars.