Old Tafo MP Vincent Ekow Assafuah has confirmed receiving three tickets for Ghana’s World Cup match against Panama but said they were allocated to members of Parliament’s Sports Committee and not personally requested by him.
The lawmaker’s comments follow remarks by Sports and Recreation Minister Kofi Adams that Assafuah had requested three tickets, each valued at $450, for the Panama game.
Assafuah, who is the Ranking Member of Parliament’s Youth and Sports Committee, said the tickets were officially allocated to members of the committee through the Clerk, following a direction from the committee’s Vice Chairman, Solomon Kuyon.
“Yes, I received them. But this was not a personal allocation,” Assafuah said in a statement.
He said the allocation applied to all Sports Committee members who were in the United States, including the committee’s Chairman, Ernest Henry Norgbey, and members from both the governing National Democratic Congress and opposition New Patriotic Party.
The dispute comes amid parliamentary scrutiny of government spending on Ghana’s participation in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Adams told the Youth and Sports Committee that the Ministry of Sports and Recreation spent about $1.26 million to procure 2,922 tickets for Ghana’s three group-stage matches. The ministry purchased 948 tickets for the Panama match, 1,000 for the England game and 974 for the Croatia fixture.
The ministry has said the tickets were procured for distribution rather than resale, with the cost including a 10 percent administrative charge permitted by FIFA.
Assafuah said the focus should instead be on broader questions surrounding the government’s expenditure on the tournament.
“We are asking for accountability, not ticket arithmetic,” he said.
He also repeated questions raised by the parliamentary Minority over the whereabouts of the Sports Minister’s driver and a secretary at the office of the Ministry’s Chief Director, whom the Minority alleges travelled to the United States under government sponsorship and have not returned to Ghana.
The Minority has said the two were among 431 people whose participation in the tournament was allegedly sponsored by the government and has called for the publication of the names and passport numbers of all sponsored travellers to establish their return status.
The claims about the two individuals’ whereabouts have not been independently verified, while reports on the Ministry’s position say the government maintains that all 431 sponsored travellers returned to Ghana.
