The dream of some four hundred Ghanaian football fans drawn from various government institutions and agencies to watch the on-going FIFA World Cup in South Africa and to support the Black Stars has become a mirage. This follows a claim by Deputy Sports Minister, Nii Nortey Dua, that the last batch of one thousand (1,000) government-sponsored supporters left Accra en-route to Pretoria, South Africa, last Sunday, hence any supporter "stranded" at the El-Wak Stadium should return home. The cheer group claim they were told they would be would be leaving for South Africa on 10th June, 2010, to enable them witness the opening ceremony of the tournament. But the Deputy Sports Minister who spoke to Peace FM in an interview on the “Kokrokoo” programme, explained that the government initially decided to send about two thousand (2,000) supporters to cheer the Black Stars but due to some financial constraints, the number was reduced to one thousand, five hundred (1,500), which was later drastically slashed down to one thousand (1,000). "The first flight carried five hundred (500) supporters then the remaining group of supporters were divided into two batches of two hundred and fifty (250) each,...The last batch left yesterday (Sunday), it is so unfortunate,” he stated in reference to keen supporters who had thronged the El-Wak Sports Stadium to board a flight to South Africa. Speaking to Kwami Sefa-Kayi on Monday morning, he explained that due to the reduction in numbers from 2,000 to 1,000, the Ministry notified all organizations and agencies who they had earlier written to, to select people for the government-sponsored trip, to reduce the number to meet with government's intended plan. "...in no way should anyone come up to say he/she was stranded because we have already notified them of our intended reduction... the Ministry (Youth and Sports) in conjunction with the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), ensured that anyone who claimed to be stranded at the El-Wak Sports Stadium, were all given money and fed so they could return to their various homes after the last flight took off at the Kotoka International Airport yesterday (Sunday). He urged the ‘stranded’ supporters to forget about going to South Africa and return to their various destinations "unless they have other means to travel to South Africa without the help of the government,” he said. The Deputy Minister stressed that securing a visa to South Africa does not automatically guarantee one access to join the government sponsored trip. "...though one can acquire a visa for the trip, if he/she does not have his/her name forwarded by an organization or agency the person would be unable to make the trip to South Africa, since government has to service only the list they received from those agencies," he added. He disclosed that another major problem which left many supporters stranded was their refusal to converge at the El-Wak Sports Stadium for their check-in before being transported to the airport. "The Ministry gave a directive that all nominated representatives should converge at the El-Wak Sports Stadium for the government to transport them to the airport, but that was unfortunately not adhered to," he lamented. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana