Following a joint statement purportedly released by players of Ghana’s senior women’s national team, the Ministry of Sports and Recreation has denied claims that the government owes the Black Queens unpaid allowances or incentives.
The Ministry insisted that all authorized financial responsibilities owed to the Black Queens had been paid in a clarification released on Wednesday nite, August 12, while clarifying that some of the payments that the players had requested had either not been authorized or were still being processed.
The Ministry added that no winning incentives were authorized for the Black Queens’ qualification matches against Egypt in the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON).
The explanation coincides with mounting worries following reports that the players had complained about unpaid bonuses, per diems, and other sorts of assistance during their WAFCON campaign.
The Ministry’s most recent stance seems to go against earlier remarks made by Sports and Recreation Minister Kofi Adams, who admitted in July that the Black Queens were one of numerous national teams with unpaid debts. He claimed at the time that the government was working to release the qualifying bonuses that the Queens were due.
Additionally, the issue brings back memories of the controversy surrounding the Black Queens’ October 2025 WAFCON qualifying match versus Egypt. The players allegedly skipped training ahead of the second game due to unpaid $9,500 in winning incentives. At the time, the Ministry acknowledged that per diems had been paid, but claimed that debates over the appropriate amounts were a contributing factor in the postponement of the winning incentives.
Therefore, the Ministry’s most recent clarification highlights a crucial distinction: whether the players are requesting payments that were never officially authorized or entitlements that have been approved.
The players’ choice to voice their concerns in public implies that there is still a communication gap between the squad and the authorities over what constitutes their outstanding entitlements, despite the government’s insistence that it owes the team nothing.
For the Black Queens, who will be representing Ghana in the 2026 WAFCON in Morocco, the controversy comes at a delicate time. The squad has already significantly increased public awareness of the difficulties pertaining to the preparation and well-being of Ghana’s women’s national team.
As of right moment, the Ministry’s stance is unambiguous: no winning bonuses were granted for the Egypt qualifiers, and the government does not acknowledge the Black Queens as having outstanding approved debts.
The development is expected to spark more debate about Ghana’s national team bonus structure, especially on the necessity of having explicit agreements on player entitlements before to important competitions and qualifiers.
The problem is particularly important because, after the Black Queens and Egypt conflict in 2025, the Sports Minister himself admitted that Ghana’s mechanism for giving bonuses to national teams needed to be reviewed.