The Minister of Sports and Recreation (MoSR), Mr Kofi Iddie Adams, has stated that the fact that the sector may be facing a myriad of challenges does not mean it is dead.
Answering numerous questions on an Accra based Metro TV Morning Sports show, yesterday, Mr Adams said “Ghana sports is not dead; it is just facing challenges that needs to be addressed. It doesn’t make it dead.”
According to him, sports is confronted with serious problems including funding, infrastructure, corruption, and inadequate professionals and so on.
“Funding is not good and even when funding comes, it is clouded with corruption; this is a big problem. The lack of professionals is also a problem.
“Another problem is the over concentration on football to the detriment of the others; that is not good enough. We need to grow other sports with football together,” he added.
Mr Adams stated that the problem of inadequate professionals can be addressed by the establishment of the University for Sports to educate officials to understand their respective sports discipline.
According to the Sports and Recreation Minister, issues about youth and sports are very important to the government and could form the basis for their detachment from each other.
“President John Mahama is committed to the development of the youth and sports because the bulk of the nation is youthful. That explains why the government detached it even when it vowed to reduce the number of ministries,” he explained.
Again, he said the detachment will also ensure a direct focus on sports development and promotion which is no longer just entertainment but a huge business venture.
Elaborating on funding, Mr Adams mentioned that it was important to roll out initiatives to get the corporate sector involved and hoped that government can promote those policies to encourage corporate sector players to join.
“Secondly, we must wage a war against corruption in sports. We must curb it. Hooliganism must also end and ensure fans and other stakeholders would be safe at the venues.”
Mr Adams hinted that the MoRS will start issuing licenses to contractors that will put up sports facilities for the state.
Reason behind this, he explained, was to ensure value for money, having heard of reports about facilities, especially astro turfs that are not fit for purpose.
On the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Mr Adams noted that government was committed to the Black Stars qualification and would do what was necessary to ensure that.
But before that, Mr Adams is planning for an engagement with leadership of the FA as well as the technical team led by Coach Otto Addo to know at first hand the challenges of the team.
He underlined that the President’s directive to travel on economy and business class would be extended to sports officials and players/athletes, and urged all to cooperate.
Moreover, commenting on the betting tax, Mr Adams described it as unfair, considering the number of times punters play and lose, adding that, “people will play for a long time but never wins, then the only time they win, you take 10 per cent; that’s not fair.”
He pledged to develop an excellent work relations with the media to develop and promote sports and also explain its agenda to Ghanaians.
BY ANDREW NORTEY