Minister for Youth and Sports, Mahama Ayariga has approved a sum of $21,362 for the beach soccer team's participation in a South African tournament.

This means the association would still have to find the outstanding $15,550 which was not approved. 

Black Sharks' protocol officer, Kusi Awere Gyamfi confirmed this to GSMA saying the team and officials would leave Accra on Wednesday evening and arrive in South Africa on Thursday ahead of their opening game against tournament favourites Nigeria on Friday. 

It would be recalled that CAL Bank stepped in to take up 50% of the cost with a package of $20,000 which was followed by a promise from the Sports Minister to absorb the rest of the budget. 

However, as at Wednesday morning (which is the day of the trip) only an approval has been given, leaving the association to look for hard cash to pay for tickets since the proposed bail out from the recognized travel agency - African Origin Travel & Sports Tourism - did not materialize. 

This fall out has been attributed to communication breakdown between the Sports Ministry and the travel and tour agency.

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