Ghana’s women’s soccer team will be paid bonuses due ahead of Friday’s 2024 Olympic qualifier against Zambia, an official has confirmed.
The Black Queens are owed $7,500 each for victories last year in qualifying for both the Olympics and the 2024 African Women’s Cup of Nations.
Gifty Oware-Mensah, the chairman of the Black Queens management committee, expects the country’s Ministry of Sports to hand over the money on Thursday afternoon.
“This is not the first time the ministry has owed bonuses to players,” Oware-Mensah told Newsday on the BBC’s World Service.
“Most of the time it takes some time before the nation can pay these bonuses. We are waiting for the ministry to come to pay in full as promised.”
Oware-Mensah also denied rumors that the Ghanaian team would have boycotted Friday’s qualifier in Accra if the bonuses were not paid.
“I was in camp with (the team), I had meetings with them,” he said.
“We had this information on social media [that the squad would boycott the match].
“We had some discussions with them. It didn’t seem like the girls were saying it, but it was worrying the Ghanaians, who felt the girls deserved their bonuses, that they had put these things on social media.
“Nothing came of the meeting [about] a boycott. There was no tension in the camp.”
Ghana Football Association (GFA) President Kurt Simeon-Okraku and Minister of Youth and Sports Mustapha Yusif visited the team ahead of their third round first leg match against Zambia.
Yusif assured players of the ministry’s “commitment to fulfill all promises made” and added that “all outstanding bonuses will be cleared,” according to a statement on the GFA website., external
The winners of the third-round tie will face either Tunisia or Morocco in April for a place at Paris 2024.