Copyright opemsuo
The Minister for Sports, Kofi Adams, has denied provoking a boycott among the Black Queens with his utterances ahead of the second leg of their 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) qualifier. The team is scheduled to host Egypt on Tuesday at the Accra Sports Stadium; however, they have refused to train as part of a planned boycott over their unpaid allowances.. The Minister during an engagement with the team on Sunday, is reported to have dared the players to carry on with their boycott, according to a viral postcard. This he refuted in an interview on Monday, saying, “Why will I say that. If I were to say that, why did I waste time driving {after arriving in the country from a trip abroad} only to go and tell them they should boycott if they like. We are shocked to see that postcard this morning.” On the contrary, he said he tried to reason with the team and assured them of payment within this week. “I told them ‘You are the players and you three are the captains. Anytime the issues of this sort arise from the player camp, the technical members and officials who stoke them are not so much named as the players and the coach for being associated with such a wrong move. If they go ahead with it, it will affect the country, and CAF may ban us. The country will bounce back after the years, but each one of you who partook in the decision will forever have that tag on you.’” The players are refusing to train due to unpaid bonuses from their participation in the 2024 WAFCON campaign held in Morocco. Addressing the concern, the Minister said the debt arose after a huge component of the estimate presented by the FA was used to settle the team’s accommodation cost. “We needed to pay for their accommodation in Morocco to avoid being expelled from their hotel. Some of the money meant to pay the group stage bonus was used to deal with the emergency that had arisen because an aspect of the estimate was excluded. “So we did variation. It’s not as if the government did not release the estimated money for the early stages. Except for the quarterfinals and third-place, they played. The group stage was honoured, but we had to use the money for an emergency,” he said on Asempa FM. He emphasised that the processes were far advanced for the payment of the funds to the players. Story by Hajara Fuseini
