Black Stars Shake-Up: Gov't cancels management committee winning bonuses

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Kofi Adams, has officially announced the cancellation of winning bonuses for members of the Black Stars Management Committee.

Speaking at a press briefing in Accra on Tuesday, September 2, Mr Adams revealed that although the initial budget for each qualifier was pegged at $1 million, the Ministry has approved $1.3 million to cover the upcoming two matches.

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He explained that players will still be entitled to $5,000 each as a winning bonus for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers, but the $10,000 previously allocated to committee members has been eliminated.

Mr Adams underscored that going forward, management officials will no longer receive bonuses tied to match results but will be restricted to their standard per diem allowances.

He further criticised the long-standing culture of awarding bonuses to committee members, particularly during the last Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, where payments were made even though the Black Stars failed to qualify.

“If for every win we are to pay a winning bonus, what happens if we do not win enough games to qualify for the tournament? Under the previous arrangement, management members received bonuses, but in the end, the team did not even qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations,” he said.

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Reiterating the new policy, the minister emphasised that the committee will now receive only per diems and not winning bonuses.

“The players earned nothing, yet managers walked away with bonuses. The President has made it clear: supervise and receive your per diem, but no winning bonus,” Mr Adams stressed.

The Black Stars are scheduled to play Chad in N’Djamena on September 4 before returning to host Mali at the Accra Sports Stadium on September 8 in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.