The National Beach Soccer Team (The Black Sharks) has called on the Minister of Youth and Sports Hon. Nii Lantey Vanderpuye to thank him for his support and encouragement that was instrumental in the team’s qualifications to the AFCON tournament scheduled for December this year in Nigeria. The Minister supported the Black Sharks with $ 30,000 for their preparations when they took on Kenya in the double header qualifiers in Nairobi and Accra respectively. The team eventually qualified for the AFCON Beach Soccer tournament to be hosted by Nigeria. Speaking at the courtesy call by the team at the Minister’s office in Accra, the President of the Team, Mr. Yaw Ampofo Ankrah acknowledged that the motivation of the team in thrashing their Kenyan opponent and qualify for the tournament was due to the timely financial support that ensured that they had adequate preparation to take on the Kenyans. Mr. Ampofo Ankrah was optimistic that the team can cause a huge upset in the upcoming tournament and urged the Ministry not to relent on their support to the Black Sharks as another National Team worth investing into. Welcoming the team, Hon. Nii Lantey Vanderpuye on behalf of Government and the Ministry congratulated the Black Sharks and their Management team for making Ghana proud in the qualifiers. The Sports Minister expressed his pride in seeing that the “little gesture” by the Ministry has yielded positive results. He disclosed that the financial support to the Black Sharks came from savings made in respect to the changes in the budget of National Teams notably the Black Stars. With a new policy on bonuses paid to national teams, Hon. Vanderpuye assured that the Black Sharks would also be paid bonuses just like any national team in a major tournament. The Minister therefore rallied the team to use their under-dog status to their advantage and bring the trophy home.