GFA President reveals how much Black Stars players were paid for Mali and Qatar friendlies

Ghana Football Association President Kurt Okraku has disclosed the amount players of the Black Stars took home for the two friendlies this month.

Ghana played two international friendlies this month against Mali and Qatar in Turkey where the Black Stars picked up a win out of the two games.

Ghana lost the opening games by a 3-0 scoreline to Mali but recovered in three days' time to whip Qatar 5-1.

Speaking in a radio interview, Kurt Okraku said the senior national team players were paid $2000 dollars for the friendly exercises.

He, however, indicated that they said amount was due to the due to the Covid circumstances.

"The players were paid $2000 for the friendly games because of the circumstances at hand but the players were not interested in the monetary benefits, rather than team building," GFA President told Nhyira FM

Meanwhile, Black Stars coach CK Akonnor has shared that he now has a fair idea of his team.

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He said they team grouped in the second game and gave Ghanaians a convincing win."Well I think, one game was down to poor performance, a team that was not organised and the way of playing was poor. We didn’t look like we were ready, and the other match that was well organised in terms of keeping the team shape and not allowing the opponent to play and not giving them too much space, which we did with a very understanding, communication was there, we were ready every giving moment and as a result of that the opponent found it difficult to function very, very well, we had our chances and we scored."

Speaking on the importance of the friendly, Akonnor maintained that he now has a clearer perspective of the team he wants to build.

"I am very happy at least to have an idea of the players, what one can do and what one cannot do and of course which positions the players will play and be effective and also the system of play, and so it’s giving me a clear idea of what to do in the near future and so it’s been a very good exercise for us."

Akonnor will be leading the Black Stars in AFCON 2022 qualifier in November against Sudan. Ghana won their first two games against South Africa and Sao Tome in November 2019.