Youth and Sports minister designate Isaac Asiamah has revealed that each member of the Black Stars playing body received a total amount of $21,000 as bonuses in their fourth place AFCON 2017 campaign.

Appearing before the appointments committee on Tuesday, the sports minister to-be who travelled to Gabon during the tournament to hold talks with the team said the players agreed to a 50% slash in their bonuses hence arriving at $21,000 in total.

"After qualifying from the group stage of the competition they were paid $15,000. The initial amount had been pegged at $30,000 but after negotiations we slashed the amount by half. Then at the Quarter Finals stage the players were each paid $6,000 instead of 12,000. Apart from these monies they were paid their usual per diems" he explained

Asked if he earned any per diems when he travelled to Gabon, Mr Asiamah said he did not.

"I went to Gabon but did not take any per diem. The total amount of budget for AFCON 2017 presented by the previous government was $4 million. The bonus structure alone amounted to some $3 million. However, with the 50% slash in the bonus structure a savings of $1.4m was made."

The Black Stars placed fourth after losing 1:0 to Burkina Faso who won bronze.

Cameroon took their tally of AFCON trophies to five after seeing off seven-time champions Egypt.

By Musah Abelyire/ghanaguardian.com