Embattled businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, has revealed how he worked hard to win the bid to host the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
With Libya and other rivals being the then big hosting rivals, Mr Woyome targeted its former president Muamar Gaddafi and the result was the opportunity coming to Accra.
“In 2001, Honourable Osei Kwaku (late), called me and asked me what we could do for the youth. So I decided that we had to turn Ghana into a sports tourism centre,” Mr Woyome told Citi TV.
“In Austria, what I saw was that they had sports mixed with other tourism activities and it earned them $40 billion per annum.
“So I said we had to do something like that. That was how it began, then in transcended to Rashid Bawa (then Education, Youth and Sports Minister), and so on.
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“Then we needed to host the tournament. That brought the idea of CAN 2008. And believe you me, how did they win it in Egypt?
“Rashid Bawa, Rex Danquah are there, go and ask them. Libya was their contestant. I had to travel to Tripoli and tell Muamar Gaddafi, ‘leave us and let’s do it’ as part of the Pan-African movement and things like that, so we won the bid.
“Then I had to go to the market in New York, trading here and there, and there I got Bank of Austria to give Ghana almost $1.4 billion dollars, the biggest softest loan ever to any country south of the Sahara. And that was how we could host the tournament,” Mr Woyome concluded.
Ghana reached the semi-finals of the AFCON 2008 but the quest to win the title on home soil was cut short by Cameroon who beat the Black Stars 1-0.
Ghana eventually beat Cote D’Ivoire 4-2 in the 3rd place match to pick up bronze.