Ghana Allocates $13m To Black Stars Ahead Of 2026 FIFA World Cup

Why are other sports in Ghana not receiving the same funding like the Black Stars?

Enjoy this episode of VAR with Sammy Bartels.

Transcript

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This is VR. My name is Samuel Battles. The government recently launched a huge fundraising drive, ostensibly to raise funds for the Ghana World Cup participation, Black Stars participation in the World Cup. There is some doubt and some questions around the issue of whether this 30 million will in any way affect the budgets that has been set aside for the Black Stars to participate in the 2026 World Cup, or this is just for other things, including the funding of funds and supporters to the Black Stars. We've heard members of the fundraising committee say that out of this money, the Black Stars money can be carved out. But I can tell you from authority, and the facts are quite obvious, that the Black Stars budget was captured in the budget that was announced by the Minister of Finance in Q3 of 2025. And this has already been ring first. We heard that this amount is 13.1 USD, and we expect that that is what will go into the core Black Stars expenditure, including um players, bonuses, the bonuses or the honorarium for members of the management committee, logistics, among other things. Of course, we also know that the Black Stars have title sponsors who have already advanced monies for the various expenditure that relates to the Black Stars under the FA's budget. So, in a way, it becomes quite hard to wrap my mind around the suggestion that the 30 million will go a long way to also fund the Black Stars participation. So it raises the question of transparency. And we are appealing to the Deputy Minister of Finance, who is the chairperson of this committee and everybody else who is involved in this committee, to start with transparency by default. It will be very, very important and critical for the line items of the expected expenditure under this 30 million to be made quite clear to the public. In that way, the committee and its members and indeed government can be held accountable for however they spend this. Let me say a big kudos to all the corporate institutions that have lined up and have already started giving to this 30 million fund. But there are a few other questions that we have to ask. At the launch of the fund, the deputy minister for finance said that if they are able to raise in excess of the 30,000, and he said that if they are able to raise in excess of the 30 million USD, then the excess amount will be paid into the nascent sports fund to support other sports. This is great, honorable deputy minister. But I beg to differ. The other sports deserve better and they deserve prioritize sports fundraising beyond just the excesses. So what happens if we raise 29 million or we raise exactly 30 million? That means the other sports will not get to benefit. It's quite clear to anybody who has followed football in Ghana and indeed sports in Ghana for a while that the Black Stars are the blue chip brand, perhaps the most preeminent brand when it comes to Ghana across everything beyond just sports. And it's the cash cow. And so when it comes to the Black Stars and when it comes to particularly their participation in the World Cup, the nation spends, the nation spares no expense in ensuring that the Black Stars are well bedded in and everything that they need to go to the World Cup is provided, even if it means they only end up playing three matches in the World Cup. This has created some professional jealousy from some of the other sports, particularly in a year where we have a very busy landscape across the sporting divide. In 2026, Ghana is participating in the Common World Games. Ghana is hosting the Well African Athletics Senior Championship. There are several other Junior Olympics and the junior championships that are taking place and several other sports competitions that are taking place. And the other sports might be wondering, how are we going to be founded? Because the other sports were not captured in the Minister of Finance's budget from Q4 of 2025. Now, whilst that issue is being addressed, someone might ask: the World Cup is great. Black stars are great for the Ghanaian economy. They are great for brand Ghana. But since 2006, when Ghana qualified for its first World Cup, what tangibly can we say has been the biggest benefit of participating in the World Cup? The World Cup participations have become national spending deficits because we spend so much and the monies that come in from participation from FIFA are usually swallowed up into the national coffee. Now we've heard the sports minister say this year for the first time that the 9 million expected to come at the minimum from the group stage of the competition would be sunk into the sports fund. Now that's what he said. We don't have full confirmation yet as to how this will play out in practice. But as far as I'm concerned, if you are going to race, even if it comes from the private sector, 30 million USD to spend on the World Cup, especially if we do not go as far as we MBC is a very difficult tournament. Let's not kid ourselves about it. It's 48 teams. We must begin as a nation to set a success criteria for our participation in the World Cup, beyond on the field. So success criteria one on the field would obviously be to go beyond the group stages and to go as far as we can. But that is separate. And that is already budgeted for. And so we have very few excuses when it comes to success criteria one. But how about success criteria two, which is any tangible benefit, whether it's financial or it's infrastructure in nature? To date, the most successful World Cup from a financial point of view has been the 2010 World Cup that Ghana participated in. It's only World Cup where, in terms of striking out how much we spent by how much we earned, you could say that Ghana ended up earning revenue or making a profit from participating in that World Cup. That was held to a large extent by the fact that Ghana went two steps beyond the group stage, which is going as far as the quarterfinal stage, which has not been the case in other World Cups, particularly the 2022 World Cup and the 2014 World Cups, where we're knocked out of the first round. In all these cases, after 20 years of participating in the World Cup, what do we have to show for it? There are those who have said, and and this was unprovoked. We've had governments after the 2014 World Cup, after the 2022 World Cup make statements about building national resource centers or building ultra modern infrastructure based on the World Cup participation to facilitate the development of talent in the country and to facilitate preparations by our national teams. None of those have materialized. We're going for another World Cup in 2026. The question then becomes what is the plan? It is easy to put it in the sports fund. But even if the monies that accrue from participation to the World Cup are put in the sports fund, I always say never trust the man who does not know what he will do with the money but says, give me the money. There has to be a national plan then as to what we will do with the winfall from the World Cup. Without that national plan, what are we going to do with the money? Already the year has begun. As far as the other sports are concerned, I have not heard or seen, and none of the media have reported a clear roadmap for the funding of all the international competitions. And the Commonwealth Games, for instance, is a multidisciplinary competition. And by now you would have the boxes, at least everybody preparing. We have not had a clear-cut financing plan. As we like to do in this country, we wait till the 11th hour and we start promising people bonuses that if you win a gold medal, this is what you get. If you win a silver medal, this is what you get. If you win a bronze medal, this is what you get. But the truth is that no amount of promises can remedy poor preparations for a competition. No amount of promises. Because ultimately, an athlete is as good as the preparation that the athlete has before a major tournament. Especially when you consider the fact that we are no longer the powerhouses in some of these sporting disciplines that we were in the past. Ghana used to be a powerhouse in boxing. Well, at a professional level, we don't have world champions. At the amateur level, we have not won a medal since the Teichi won a medal at the Olympic Games. So, what is the plan I ask? And what is the win for as far as this World Cup is concerned? Now, to end this episode of VAR, I'll finish off by looking at the issue of the transparency and accountability. We've seen already that there are two draws that are running. The FA is running a draw in collaboration with the NLE government has announced this draw, this special draw that would help in raising the 30 million USD. Ultimately, some questions will have to be answered. What are the line items for this 30 million? Will supporters be sponsored to the World Cup? On the one hand, the president has said that no state funds will be used to send supporters to the World Cup. But on the other hand, as well, we have not been told clearly how much of this 30 million, which is not space state fund, true to the president's promise, will be used to send supporters to the World Cup. We have not been told yet who will be on the plane and who's been on that plane to the World Cup will be financed out of the amounts that are being raised in the name of the Black Stars of Ghana. Now I say this because I have mentioned before this interministerial or special committee that has been set up to steer Ghana's participation in the World Cup is at work. The 11 members, they are likely to be subcommittees. Are all these layers of red tape and layers of committees that are supposed to help Ghana prepare for the World Cup going to be financed out of the 30 million USD that is to be raised? That is, if we are going to raise as much as the 30 million. We've seen enough in this country to call for total transparency. And sometimes the powers that be may think that the transparency is just simply a call by people who don't know what they are talking about. But it actual fact it helps protect the reputation of the country, helps protect the reputation of the industry, individuals who have volunteered to be part of this fundraising and other related activities. Other than that, the pain of underperformance of the World Cup usually then breaks out into the acrimony that comes with the call for accountability for how we spent so much money at the World Cup and yet, beyond the emotional roller coaster, benefited so little as far as our football and our sport are concerned. So my call to the government, my call to the Ministry of Sports and Recreation, my call to all the other allied people who have been co-opted into the Black Stars preparation to the World Cup is for a country to have a clear plan of ensuring that our qualifications to the World Cup do not just turn out to be a circus for everybody to jump on and show their nationalism. But then there are legacy benefits for sports within the country, and particularly the football within the country, that we can always point to generations later to say, because Ghana qualified for the World Cup, not only did the country have exposure, which are which is intangible, or did the Black Stars brand become famous all over the world. Not only because we saw citizens rally around the flag and rally around the Black Stars jersey, but there were tangible benefits that led to infrastructural development that another generation of Ghanaians benefited for, and which prolonged Ghana's record of qualifying for, participating in the World Cup, and advancing to the latter stages of the World Cup. We've seen what investment in sports can do. And we've seen what Morocco have done. And we've seen how Morocco went a step beyond what Cameroon had gone to in 1990 by reaching the quarterfinals, what Senegal had done in 2002 by reaching the quarterfinals, what Ghana had also done by reaching the quarterfinals. And I have no doubt that this Moroccan project will continue to make them a powerhouse as far as African footballer is concerned. But as for Ghana, there are no shortcuts. You can depend on external talents that were raised on other people's infrastructure and systems, or you can. When all is said and done, the real judgment is in how much you yourself have invested into your sports infrastructure and how much that will bear fruit and will pay the dividends that show that you're a country that can sustain its sporting accolades and sporting successes and football successes at the highest level for the youngest period. This is VAR. My name is Samuel Bartels. Yo, Charlie is the channel that you have to be on for the best content. Like and love our page and subscribe to all our content. We'll see you for the next edition of VAR.