To the extent that national team coaches are owed monies for work done, and to have one of them, C. K. Akonnor deny or disagree with the Ministry of Youth and Sports on payments made to him, it’s safe to say that we still have sufficient grounds to cover in taking good care of the technical handlers our national teams.
CK, who was fired as Black Stars coach in September 2021 recently denied that the Ministry of Youth and Sports had paid him US$100k as claimed by the Youth and Sports Minister, Hon. Mustapha Ussif. I question what politicians say but when CK issued his denial, I wondered who was being truthful.
For the records, CK once said no one was interfering in his job when he coached the Black Stars yet after being dismissed, he said it was public knowledge that players were imposed on him. We know he couldn’t be truthful on the job when he had it.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports has given a breakdown of payments made to CK. They say, after CK was sacked, he received GHS318,378 ($54,054) in October 2021. Then in February 2022, CK had GHS335,675 ($54,054)
In January, GHS860,000 (US$100,000) was sent to CK before a US$30,000 cheque on July 27th, 2023, which he declined and opted for a bank transfer, which was done on July 31, 2023. So, in total, CK has had US$508,108 with US$220,000 as the balance.
Against the information provided by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, CK will help us if he comes back on exactly how much he’s received or indeed what he meant by: “I never received the kind of money the minister mentioned [US$100k]. I don’t want to put out how much they paid me, but it was not $100,000”.
The public won’t be naive to swallow what the Ministry of Youth and Sports has published without questions but dear CK, it’s either you come back, or your claim can’t be taken seriously.
Credit: Jerome Otchere
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