Only five of 31 World Cup raffle winners secured US visas – Kofi Adams

Sports and Recreation Minister Kofi Adams revealed that merely five out of the 31 winners of a second raffle aimed at securing travel to the 2026 FIFA World Cup managed to obtain United States visas. The government is currently formulating a compensation package for the remaining 26 competitors who were unable to attend the tournament.

During a media briefing on Thursday, November 5, in Parliament, amidst growing controversy surrounding the World Cup fundraising campaign and visa procedures, Mr. Adams elucidated that an initial cluster of seven to ten raffle victors had their travel permissions processed after a meeting with the organizers. According to Mr. Adams, this group was subsequently refunded, but later coerced into resubmitting the money to Rambell in order to continue with their original travel preparations.

However, almost all of them declined this request and chose to retain their refunds. The minister further announced that a subsequent raffle, organized by Mpuntu, resulted in 31 winners. Despite travel permissions being issued for all the winners, only five succeeded in obtaining United States visas. The minister emphasized that the funds raised via the second raffle, organized by Mpuntu, have not been utilized and remain under the control of the fundraising committee, intending to compensate those who were unable to participate.

"Every pesewa of the raffle that was run by Mpuntu has not been touched. That money has not been touched. The fundraising committee is still holding on to those funds to make sure that everybody is appropriately compensated," he stated. The minister also dismissed allegations by the NPP Minority in Parliament regarding the utilization of foreign telephone numbers in the fundraising exercise, categorizing the claims as false.

"If the NPP Minority in Parliament is running a story and talking about foreign numbers and what have you, that’s a complete lie," he concluded.