Stars, Warriors match yields 138 million cedis

The African Nations Cup qualifying match b/t the Black Stars and the Warriors of Zimbabwe yielded a total of 138 million cedis.

Speaking to GNA Sports Correspondents, Mr Amadu Issah, Chief Accountant of the National Sports Council said the amount represents revenue generated from the sale of 25,929 tickets at the gates. He said 72 tickets in 20,000 cedis denomination were sold while 1,109 tickets of the 15,000 cedis brand were purchased by fans. Other denominations of tickets sold were 2,300 eight-thousand cedis tickets, 12,409 five thousand cedis tickets and 10, 049 four thousand cedis tickets. Responding to media allegations that old tickets were sold at the gates by individuals, the Chief Accountant said the sale of the old tickets was authorised by the Security Committee of the Council. He said it became necessary to release the old tickets since there were many people outside the stadium who wanted to watch the match and tickets printed for it had run out of stock. Mr Issah said 2000 tickets in five thousand cedis denomination and another 2000 in four thousand cedis denomination were released from the left over of the Marcel Desailly Charity match played on Friday June 11, 1999.

He said in addition to those tickets, the Committee also released 300 tickets of the Accra Hearts of Oak and Great Olympics second round Premier League match played on Sunday, September 31. The chief Accountant admitted however that there were many gate crushers at the match and attributed it to the failure of the Military Police to respond positively to the request of the council to provide security.

Meanwhile, all players of the senior national soccer team, the Black Stars have been paid winning bonuses for the 4-1 whitewash of the Warriors of Zimbabwe. Mr Kudjo Fianoo, Welfare Officer of the Stars told GNA Sports that the money was released in the morning and any player who cared to receive his was free to do so. He said the early release of the money was a way of showing appreciation to the boys for the superlative performance they put up against the Warriors. The Welfare Officer said the early payment was to enable the overseas-based players to return on schedule in order not to receive any negative assessment from their clubs. "When they return early to their bases after every match their clubs would be more willing to release them any time we need them for national assignment", he said. Mr Fianoo however declined to say how much each player was paid and referred the writer to the Ghana Football Association (GFA) even though he was responsible for the disbursement of the money.

At the GFA, Mr Wolanyo Agra, the General Secretary, informed that the players were paid the cedi equivalent of 1,500 dollars, which is the ceiling for Nations Cup qualifiers.