Sports Ministry struggling to raise GH¢8.5m for 500 World Cup fans

Ghana’s 2014 World cup campaign might be in Limbo as the Ministry of Sports is struggling to raise GH¢ 8.5 million (almost $2,850,000) in its bid to take 500 supporters to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup.

This revelation was made by a planning committee member, Ben Nunoo-Mensah, in an interview with journalists.

According to Ben Nunoo-Mensah, the ministry needs to raise GH¢ 8.5m to send about 500 supporters to Brazil for this year’s tournament, adding that, it had become extremely tough pulling off the feat.

“We need about GH¢ 8.5m to send about 500 supporters to Bra­zil so things are extremely tough,” Ben Nunoo-Mensah said.

The move, by the Sports Minis­try, has been necessitated follow­ing government’s decision not to sponsor fans’ trip (as done in previ­ous competitions) to support the Black Stars in this year’s football mondial slated for June 12.

Despite, raising over GH¢ 250,000 at the inaugural Presiden­tial Ball held at the State Banquet Hall last week to bid the Black Stars farewell, the Ministry is grappling with the task of raising additional GH¢ 8.5m to ensure the presence of Ghanaian supporters in Brazil this June.

Mr. Nunoo-Mensah further revealed that the monies raised plus others received through corporate donation fall far below the expected amount required to take at least 500 supporters to this year’s tournament.

Mr. Nunoo-Mensah explained that though sponsorships have been coming in, the “quantum” is not as much as they had anticipat­ed, thereby making it quite difficult for the ministry to raise the said amount. He said, the ministry is falling on corporate sponsorships, following government’s withdrawal of funds to transport fans.

“We are falling solely on cor­porate sponsorship since govern­ment has decided not to commit resources to this project of taking supporters to Brazil.

“But we don’t have that amount yet even though the sponsorship has been coming in gradually but the quantum is not as much as we have anticipated, so things are quite difficult” he added.

Prior to this year’s tournament, government, in previous tourna­ments, committed funds to trans­port supporters to World cup ven­ues. With barely two weeks to the start of the World Cup in Brazil, the Sports Ministry is expecting more donations in order to realize the needed amount to transport fans to football’s biggest stage in Brazil.