Minister for Youth and Sports Isaac Asiamah has finally put an end to the wait when he disclosed to Parliament Ghana’s actual budget for the just ended 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, that a sum of $6,365,033.44 was approved for for the tournament.
The minister appeared before Parliament on Wednesday to present the estimated budget for the tournament as well as the actual amount spent for preparations and during the tournament till Ghana’s shameful exit at the round 16 stage.
The Sports minister disclosed that out of the over $6m budget, government spent a total of $4.5m fund the AFCON campaign in which the Black Stars failed woefully, displaying one of the poorest AFCON campaigns in the last 11 years. According to him, the expenditure included pre-tournament training tour, the tournament itself and other activities. Overall, Ghana spent a total sum of $4.563,353.00 during the training tour in Dubai till the the main tournament where Ghana exited at the round of 16.
In his submission, Isaac Asiamah expressed his deepest disappointment over the overall output, admitting that even though the Black Stars entered the tournament with the needed support both in resource and cash, the performance exhibited was inadequately woeful and below expectations.
Ghana lost to the Cartage Eagles of Tunisia 5-4 on penalties after 1-1 draw after extra time to exit the tournament in the round of 16, and many Ghanaians and pundits have attributed the catastrophic exit to technical inefficiency on the part of the coaches, while others believe lack of unity in the team played major role in debacle, and have called for the sack of the head coach James Kwasi Appiah whose contract runs till December this year.
The minister further stated that the Normalization Committee of the Ghana Football Association has been tasked to present a detailed report on the team for further assessment and further steps by the sports ministry.
Ghana’s AFCON 2019 budget breakdown
