The Minister for Youth and Sports, Isaac Asiamah, has cast doubt on the opposition National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) proposal to pay local players GH¢1,500.00 as monthly allowance.
The Communications Director of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, in an interview with Kumasi FM, revealed that local players in the Ghana Premier League (GPL) will receive an average salary of GH₵1,500.00 if the NDC wins the 2020 elections.
Some players have been calling for a minimum wage law to be enforced to ensure that players in Ghana are paid well to avoid player transfer exodus outside the country.
The new NDC manifesto promised the launch of a sports fund that will be dedicated to sports development in the country.
Mr Gyamfi said the sports fund will support football clubs to pay players at least GH₵1,500.00 as a monthly salary.
“The NDC will establish a sports development fund. The government will furnish the account with enough money and also generate some from corporate bodies,” he told Kumasi FM.
“Every club that plays in the premier league will be supported with funds to settle player salaries, an average money of GHC 1,500 will be paid to each player.
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“Every club that qualifies to play in the CAF Inter-club competition will also be supported. The inter-colleges games will also be supported financially with this fund.
“However, clubs that transfer players abroad will give a percentage of the money they earn into the sports fund.”
But Mr Asiamah, on Fire-for-Fire on Adom TV, said the proposal is not realistic.
“They have been in power before why didn’t they implement that?
“The New Patriotic Party has started doing good things for the development of our football and building of infrastructure to help develop our game.
“We have the YEA programme which is running and supporting clubs playing in Africa with huge money so I don’t see them even delivering on their promises.
“I don’t trust them because when they had the opportunity, they messed up our game,” he added.