Former Asante Kotoko board chairman, Herbert Mensah, has emphasised the need for the Ghana Football Association to independently raise funds to run the national teams, rather than relying on the government.

Traditionally, the government finances all national teams because the state owns them, with the GFA only responsible for managing them.

The women’s national team, the Black Queens, had their friendlies against Senegal and Tunisia canceled last month because the government did not approve a $40,000 budget.

Mensah believes football is attractive enough to lure corporate companies to invest in it.

“In a couple of elections back, I stated that whoever should be running the GFA, the easiest thing to raise money for, this side of a beauty pageant, is football,” he told Joy News.

“So you shouldn't go to the government and be really requiring the government [to invest in football].

“If I were running the national teams, I'd be doing that [raising money to run them].”

Herbert Mensah also raised concerns about the amount of money the government spent on the Black Stars during the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, arguing that the state is wasting taxpayers money on the team without getting results in recent years.