General News of Monday, 15 December 2014

Source: starrfmonline.com

Mahama: Airlifting $3m to Black Stars was bad for Ghana's image

President John Mahama has admitted that the controversial airlifting of 3 million dollars by his government to pay bonuses of agitating Black Stars players during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil “didn’t do us any good service”.

He said he is hopeful that the Dzamefe Commission, which is investigating the circumstances that occasioned the scenario will come up with appropriate measures to prevent a future occurrence of the incident.

“Ghana is a very well respected footballing country, we have a very good team and we’ve had very good football administrators, but I think that this [airlifting of money], didn’t do us any good service,” Mahama told Aljazeera in an interview shown on Sunday.

He added: “I think that with the current commission that is sitting - it's led by a very respected judge - and I’m sure that they are going to come out with all the facts so that we learn the lessons from that and so that we don’t repeat the situation”.

Government airlifted the money to pay the appearance fee of the Black Stars after the team threatened to boycott their match against Portugal.

The team subsequently lost the match resulting in their elimination from the tournament, even after receiving the money.

The development caught the attention of the world/ Already a Hollywood movie director is adapting on screen, what has been described as an "embarrassing" moment for Ghana.

Commenting on the movie, the President said although he doubts he will be portrayed in the movie, he would not mind if American movie star Denzel Washington, played the presidential character.