Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Mercenaries: Ghana resolve bonus row ahead of Portugal clash

Ghana's bonus row between the players and the FA has been solved after £1.76million was flown into Brazil by the government on Tuesday. The Black Stars were irritated with the amount they had been paid and almost boycotted their trip to Brasilia to face Portugal in their must-win final group game. Ghana president John Mahama had to intervene swiftly to calm nerves over the appearance fees for the World Cup which has not been paid since the start of the competition. An official statement from the Ghana FA confirmed the disruption caused in the camp but assured that "the money will be paid by Wednesday afternoon which has brought some assurance to the Black Stars". Ghana's deputy sports minister Joseph Yamin said officials had no option than to arrive at that decision since the players threatened to derail the World Cup campaign. The players held up their trip to Brasilia for hours, demanding about £60,000 each as an "appearance fee" at the global football fiesta before facing Portugal on Thursday. The sports ministry had initially planned to wire the money to the players as the tournament wears on but they had to "come back and mobilise the physical cash to be sent to them.

Saturday morning, the money was mobilised but a chartered flight to take the money to Brazil is what has delayed the money up until now." Yamin told Accra-based Citi FM that the flight will be in Brazil on Wednesday then the money will be given to the players players ahead of their must-win game against Portugal.

He said: "government had to contend with getting permits, getting the reliable flight to be able to send this money across, national security vans would have to be policing this money to the airport." Yamin said they had no option than to give in to the Black Stars pressure since government did not want to be blamed for a bad campaign in Brazil.

Ghana will play Portugal on Thursday and a convincing win could see them makie it to the knockout stage of the competition.

And later you would see one of them crying when singing the national anthem. Hypocrites!

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