Revealed: FA members shared $557,500 as appearance fee in Brazil

The General Secretary of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Mr Emmanuel Gyimah, yesterday told the Justice Dzamefe Commission that he collected $557,500 as appearance fees on behalf of seven Black Stars Management Committee members in Brazil.

The amount, he said, was released to him by the Chief Director of the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS), Mr Prosper Apasu, on the basis of an Authority Note signed by FA president Kwesi Nyantakyi on June 25, 2014.

GFA scribe’s evidence

Giving evidence before the three-man commission, the jittery Mr Gyimah could, however, not give any details as to why the GFA requested for appearance fees for seven persons, whereas only five Management Committee members were with the Stars in Brazil.

When confronted with the question about how many committee members were indeed in Brazil, he said five and named the absentee members as Mr Emmanuel Kyeremeh, who was indisposed, and the late Jordan Anagbla.

He strongly defended the payment of appearance fees to Management Committee members as had been the practice since 2006 due to the equally important roles they played to enhance the team’s performance.

He explained that once FIFA pays prize money at each stage of the World Cup, the committee members were justified in receiving winning bonus and appearance fees at every stage, same as players and technical team members.

Justice Dzamefe suggested to the GFA to consider giving it another name, while Mr Kofi Anokye Owusu Darko thought a one-off appearance fees should be enough for the entire tournament.  

He also told the commission that while the FA and the MOYS agreed on $82,500 appearance fees which were approved by the state, the players insisted on being paid $100,000 while they were in Montenegro last March.

Mr Gyimah also revealed that FIFA catered for the accommodation, feeding, and airfare of 50 players and officials at the World Cup but could not explain the reason for the inconsistences in the number of extra officials who joined the team to Brazil.

Code of conduct

When Moses Foh-Amoaning sought to know whether the FA had introduced the code of conduct to the Stars players, Mr Gyimah said it was recently discussed and the players said they had to refer it to their lawyers for advice.

Upon briefing by a colleague, Mr Gyimah later told the commission that some players actually signed the document during the game against Togo a couple of weeks back.

Enraged by the players’ behaviour, Mr Foh-Amoaning thought the players had been given too much latitude and, therefore, advised the FA to give the adamant ones a deadline to sign or forfeit their places in the team.

Mr Foh-Amoaning emphasised that it was high time the FA made the players aware that the state was bigger than them.

Appointment of local coaches

According to Mr Gyimah, the GFA did not sign contracts with local coaches who handled the other national teams but merely gave them appointment letters which contained their entitlements such as winning bonuses, per diem allowances and salaries which the FA ended up paying, instead of the MOYS.

The chairman of the commission stepped in to suggest to the GFA to engage the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in negotiation to consider taking up the salaries of the Black Stars coach and his assistant.

Nyantakyi’s testimony

When GFA president, Kwesi Nyantakyi, finally appeared before the commission, he said the salaries of head coaches and their assistants were in arrears of $175,128.

He also revealed that the FA had spent over GH¢36million on the various national teams from 2006 to date and also raised GH¢34million.

Waxing lyrical, Nyantakyi stressed the need for the government to invest more money in football as it pertained elsewhere, citing how Germany invested $500million into the development of their game over a period, and leading to their World Cup success in Brazil.

The highly-confident Nyantakyi interestingly asked the commission if he could tackle one of the controversial subjects before the curtains could be lowered but Justice Dzamefe overruled him and adjourned sitting to today.

Litina Travel & Tours

Concluding her evidence yesterday, Ms Ernestina Abrokwa, Chief Executive Officer of Litina Travel and Tours, appealed to the commission to help recover a total of $333,500 owed her by Ivan Bruce Cudjoe of Travel Matters.

The amount represented her share of profit accruing from the partnership agreement reached with Mr Cudjoe in April to airlift Ghanaian supporters to Brazil.

Ms Abrokwa told the commission that aside the $231,000 received by Mr Cudjoe as money received from the 71-member Black Stars contingent which boarded the last chartered flight to Ghana on June 29, “each day I’m discovering other people who paid money to board the flight.”

She said according to her investigations, 234 passengers boarded the 269 capacity aircraft, following the decision by some supporters not to return with the flight.

She disagreed with the commission that once the state paid 75 per cent of the cost of the three chartered flights the Black Stars contingent had every right to board the flight free of charge, insisting that was another business altogether since the GFA had made its own flights arrangements.

“It doesn’t work like that. In this case the Black Stars had their own arrangements so if they come to us then it’s a business opportunity,” Ms Abrokwa explained.  

Asked why she chalked up success in Brazil, she explained that she learnt her lessons from the South Africa experience and therefore relied heavily on the Ghana Embassy in Brasilia for assistance in securing internal flights, hotel accommodation and buses.

She recalled how she had to intervene to provide hotel accommodation for the World Cup ambassadors in Natal, following a distress call by Fred Darko, who later reneged on making payment after three nights, until the hotel authorities had given an ejection notice.