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Sports News of Sunday, 1 March 2015

Source: ghanasportsonline.com

We try to pay equal attention to all National teams- Ayariga

Sports Minister Mahama Ayariga says his outfit makes all the necessary effort to pay equal attention to the other National teams.

The sector Minister has elucidated the reason behind the Ministry’s vast attention on the Black Stars.

Mahama Ayariga has received massive bashing from Ghanaian Football enthusiasts who believe the Ministry has been bigotry considering the level of attention given to the various National teams.

The Black Stars have enjoyed the greater aspect of incentives given to the National teams on numerous occasions. An act many have described as unfair on the part of the Sports Ministry and the Ghana Football Association.

But Mahama Ayariga, who was appointed to office in July last year, says his outfit has made the essential effort to give equal concentration to all the National teams.

“The time they [Junior National teams] make their request might be too close to the tournament and for you to process money sometimes takes a little bit of time,” he told Kumasi-based radio station Nhyira Fm in an interview.

“So once a while you will realize that a particular group might not get their monies for tournaments on time”.

“But on a whole, we make efforts to provide the same level of attention except that, we us Ghanaians are focusing on the Black Stars because the tournaments they play most times are better marketed”.

“The World Cup, for instance, is not marketed by Ghana, but the Whole World promotes the World Cup so you will realize we all shift our attention to that particular tournament and consequently the attention will be on the Black Stars”.

“Unlike the other tournament our other National team’s participate in which has a very little level of mileage, otherwise in terms of budgetary allocation we make sure we treat all the National teams equally”.

There has been concern as to how the Ministry manages the Junior National teams in terms of budgetary allocation, especially after the enormous prize packages given to the Black Stars after participating in various tournaments.