The Minister for Sports and Recreation, Kofi Adams, has defended the resale of 2026 FIFA World Cup tickets by individuals, saying such transactions were allowed under FIFA regulations and United States laws.

Mr Adams said reports of ticket resale in the United States did not involve government-issued tickets being diverted or sold for personal gain, but rather individuals who had legitimately acquired tickets and later resold them when prices increased.

Speaking in an interview on Accra-based 3FM on Tuesday, 14 July 2026, the minister said the ministry could verify the distribution of tickets it secured because records were available.

“Those tickets are issued through an email. So the records are there,” he said, explaining that the ministry could determine whether an individual received or paid for a ticket.

He said concerns about resale had created the impression that tickets allocated by the ministry had been misused, but clarified that some cases involved private individuals acting within the rules governing ticket transfers.

Mr Adams explained that Ghana’s limited ticket allocation was distributed among corporate sponsors, recognised supporters’ groups, winners of a public raffle and Ghanaians living abroad through Ghana’s diplomatic missions.

He added that corporate sponsors received tickets based on their financial contributions towards Ghana’s World Cup campaign.

According to him, Engineers and Planners, which he described as the country’s biggest sponsor, contributed US$2 million and received between 40 and 70 tickets for each Black Stars match.

He said companies that contributed between GH¢1 million and several million cedis received smaller allocations.

The minister said the ministry procured a total of 2,922 tickets for Ghana’s group-stage matches, with 948 tickets allocated for the game against Panama, 1,000 for the England match and 974 for the fixture against Croatia.