The British High Commissioner to Ghana Jon Benjamin has said professional footballers who are earning well in their clubs should not be expecting high bonuses when called for national duties. “...For example, I bet everyone in this room could hazard a guess at Avram Grant’s starting eleven for the next Black Stars fixture against Mauritius tomorrow. And, incidentally, on that I hold the very old-fashioned view that already highly paid footballers given the high and patriotic honour of representing their countries should not also expect large appearance bonuses for doing so,” the outspoken diplomat told a gathering at the Sports writers awards over the weekend. Commenting further on sports, Mr. Benjamin urged sports journalists in the country to give fair coverage to the other sporting disciplines in order to encourage the athletes. “I would appeal to you, the sportswriters of Ghana to do a little more to balance reporting across the entire spectrum of Ghanaian sport”. Below is the full speech of Mr. Benjamin I am so delighted to have been asked to speak here today and thank the Sportwriters Association of Ghana for their kind invitation. The British High Commission is committed to partnership with Ghanaian media houses. Indeed, we regard our collaboration with you as an essential part of our work here. I’d particularly like to greet my friend the Honourable Minister for Youth and Sports, as this is my first chance to thank him publicly for the time and effort he spent last week in accompanying our royal visitor, HRH Prince Edward during his visit to Ghana. HRH was mostly here to promote the Duke of Edinburgh’s award scheme and its Ghanaian affiliate, the Head of State Awards Scheme. And that served as useful reminder that the Minister oversees the Ministry of Youth and Sport, not just the Ministry of Sport, so I really hope the visit was useful for your important task, too, Honourable: thank you again. But it is, indeed, sport that brings us together this evening. And sport is about its players and participants, its administrators, its followers, indeed all those who are passionate about it, and above all, this evening, it is about those who write about it. When I say sport, I do mean all sport, not just football. But, let’s face it, it’s scarcely a secret - in Ghana, in the UK and in a clear majority of all the countries around the world, football is the number one sport, and often by a very large distance. So, let’s start with football. My own single earliest memory is from when I was just 3 ½, the same age my own son is now. I recall vaguely people jumping up and down in the front room of our then house in front of the TV - an unfeasibly chunky and not very reliable box with an unstable, grainy black and white picture - as England won the World Cup. It was 1966. And of course, England won particularly thanks to the efforts of three players – Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, all of whom played for West Ham United at the time. So, completely neutrally and objectively of course, I think it’s fair to say that, in fact, West Ham won the World Cup. That’s what I choose to believe anyway! But it’s been a very long wait since then, exactly half a century in fact for England to win anything else. But I know that all of you sportswriters here are about confidently to write or broadcast next week that England will win Euro 2016. Just as I know that many of you predicted last August that Leicester City were going to win the English Premier League – I know that because some of you have claimed to me recently that you did, indeed, tip Leicester, though I am struggling to find the evidence! In fact, how could England not win the Euros with 18-year old wonder kid Marcus Rashford up front? And, yes, Ladies and Gentlemen – 18 year old Marcus, really is ... 18. A player's football and official age should of course always happily coincide. Now, I expect that all of you here are of the common opinion that sports writing
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