Government will no longer sponsor sports fans — White Paper

By Edmund Smith-Asante

The government says supporters and fans who intend to travel for tournaments must make their own arrangements, while it also intends to discourage the engagement of caterers to feed supporters who travel to cheer the national teams.

“The state should not commit state funds to send supporters to tournaments. Funding by private sponsors should be encouraged,” the White Paper released by the government last Thursday on the Dzamefe Commission report detailed.

These were among 60 recommendations made by the Dzamefe Commission set up to investigate Ghana’s participation in the 2014 World Cup tournament in Brazil, which were agreed by the government.

Fan Parks and Teams Management

Further investigations have also been ordered into the activities of the Fan Parks that were produced and managed by E-volution International, while any net income accruing from the execution of the Fan Parks is paid to the state with interest at the prevailing bank rate.

Meanwhile, according to the Government White Paper, any misappropriation/misapplication of the funds given by GNPC to EXvolution International on behalf of the Ministry of Youth and Sports should be refunded by E-volution International or surcharged to the Minister of Youth and Sports at the time, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah.

Concerning management of the national football teams however, the decision is to have the Management Committee of the national teams governed by a performance contract to be put in place by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the number of Management Committee Team members must be reduced to five, in order to reduce expenditure.

Other accepted recommendations

Among the accepted recommendations, the government agreed that for corporate governance purposes, the GFA President should not be a member of the Management Committee of any national team, to ensure that the management committees had a fallback position in times of conflict management.

On the issue of flight/transport, it agreed with the commission that the sum of US$75,150.00 which was the total cost of unused match tickets in Brazil should be surcharged to the travel agents, Travel Matters.

The government has also agreed not to pay Travel Matters the cost of the internal flight arrangements in Brazil if it had not been paid and also make the travel agents refund the cost of the internal flight arrangements in Brazil if it had been paid.

Background

The government declared its acceptance of most of the recommendations made by the Dzamefe Commission in its 400-page report submitted to President John Mahama on March 30 this year.

The three-member commission, which was set up by President Mahama in August last year, was tasked with investigating all activities and issues relating to the participation of the senior national football team, the Black Stars, in the 2014 World Cup tournament hosted by Brazil.

Acceptance of the recommendations made by the commission after its four-month sitting was done through a White Paper released by the Attorney General, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong.

The accepted recommendations covered a range of issues on some controversial happenings in the Ghana camp during Brazil 2014 and were listed under 24 subheadings on the White Paper.

There were, however, recommendations that were accepted but with modifications, while others that were not accepted were accompanied by the government’s reasons on why it did not accept them.

Issues on which recommendations were accepted

The issues on which the commission’s suggestions were accepted by the government included Flight/transport; Feeding; Fan parks; Sponsorship and funding of the supporters’ project; Ownership of national teams and benefits.

Others were Sponsorship monies of national teams; Budgeting and funding for 2014 World Cup; Black Stars management team; Relationship between state (Ministry of Youth and Sports - MOYS) and the GFA; Relationship between MOYS, National Sports Association (NSA) and the GFA; Friendly matches towards the World Cup; Public interest committee and ownership of FIFA World Cup participation prize money.

Then there were recommendations on written response by the GFA president concerning invitation of Black Stars players; Funding of other sports; Officers of the Ministry of Youth and Sports; Responses by GFA to FIFA on the mandate of the commission; and Catering statement of account for supporters.

The rest were “Co-efficient Theory” and definition of “management” by the GFA president; FIFA World Cup prize money and related matters; Lifting of cash to Brazil; Age fabrication; and Ghana’s relationship with FIFA and CAF.

Writer’s email: edmund.asante@graphic.com.gh

This story was first published by the Daily Graphic on June 13, 2015