2014 World Cup: Christian Atsu assures Black Stars won't boycott Portugal clash despite pay row

Published on: 25 June 2014
2014 World Cup: Christian Atsu assures Black Stars won't boycott Portugal clash despite pay row
Christian Atsu

Ghana winger Christian Atsu insists there is no way his teammates will boycott Thursday’s final Group G match against Portugal if their appearance fees are unpaid.

The Black Stars players agitated on Tuesday at the team camp base in Maceio and nearly boycotted their trip to Brasilia.

But the Ghana government intervened there were reports a plane flew from Accra to Brasília with $3m (£1.76m) on board.

President John Mahama spoke to the players and they decided to travel to the Brazilian capital.

Speaking at Wednesday’s pre-match conference, Atsu says they will still take to the field even if the money delays.

“We are in the biggest tournament in the world now, if we don’t get the money, we’ll just put everything behind us because the whole world is watching us. We are not going to say: ‘Because of the money we’re not going to play’,” the Chelsea player said he said.

“We had these issues but now we had a meeting and our captain [Asamoah Gyan] spoke with us. We respect him every much.

“Now we’re all focused on the game, a game that is very important for all Ghanaians, also for us, the players. It will be bad if we lose the game, because I think people will think it’s because of the money. So we have no option but to do our country proud.”

Asked where the players proposed to keep the cash, Atsu smiled and replied: “That’s a difficult question for me. Of course we will keep it in our bags. We just lock them. We will transfer all the money into our account.”

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