In what can be described as ‘a big disgrace’, Ghana could miss out on wearing their Puma jerseys for next month’s Africa Cup of Nations because of unpaid custom duties. The African giants have been unable to to pay the import duties for the apparel from the German manufacturers to be cleared. The Ghana FA needs over GH¢140,000 to clear the kit but the sports ministry, which has taken custody of the US$11m gained from the 2010 World Cup, has not responded to calls for the good to be cleared. This means the Black Stars will have to rely on local football jersey manufacturer Mingle to produce the jersey to be worn by the World Cup quarter finalists at Africa’s flagship competition if it is not cleared. According to Kwesi Nyantakyi, the GFA has written to the Ministry of Youth and Sports to intervene to enable them clear the goods, but after weeks of the notification, nothing has been heard from the minister. “If we wait for a while and we get to the crunch, perhaps, we may have to go in for a loan somewhere to clear the goods,” Nyantakyi said jokingly, but obviously, with some amount of disappointment in his voice. Although he expects the Ministry to intervene, he is not under illusion that it is only parliament that can do something about the law to ensure that bodies such as the GFA is exempt from the payment of duty in order to avert any such embarrassment in future. He added that until that is done, not even the ministry, which the FA looks up to can do something about the situation in which the GFA finds itself. Interestingly, at a time the GFA finds itself in dire financial straits, and can’t pay duty to clear its goods from the port, the football federation has $11million dollars with the ministry over which they are dialoguing and hoping some kind of deal would be struck for them to their share. The $11million is the GFA’s share of money for teams that played in the last World Cup, and also for qualifying to play in the quarter final of the World Cup. The money is now in the custody of the ministry because Ghanaians are told that the ministry pre-financed the Black Stars’ participation at the World Cup. This revelation will bring massive embarrassment to the country and government despite the huge name and success the team has brought the West African country.