The Ghana Football Association (GFA)’s President, Kurt Okraku’s Facebook post decrying (and rightly so), what the National Sports Authority (NSA) has done to football nudged me to my writing pad. In two months, I have not been here but there are matters to be spoken about because they paint a sad picture for Ghana sports.
“What the NSA has done to football and sports this month should NEVER happen again. It's just not acceptable!” Kurt Okraku wrote. I am sorry, it will happen again if the visionless NSA leadership is in the office. Under the uninspiring leadership of Prof. Peter Twumasi, December is a money-making period for the NSA from other entertainment.
They milk the fat-showbiz season to grow their lean bank accounts since football, we know, gives them peanuts. The problem is neither with giving the stadium to musicians nor is it with making money. How the ever-suffering pitch at the Accra Stadium is not covered ahead of the entertainment shows and how there seems not to be a mutual ground for operation between the NSA and the GFA is problematic.
That the NSA is financially constrained is no secret. Also, the NSA leadership’s utter contempt for all who disagree with them over the mismanagement of the state sports facilities is public knowledge. Hence, a breaking point is necessary lest sports, which are already underdeveloped here, suffer more.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports has not offered any hope in this regard, and it is either the government is careless or unaware of these issues. State sports infrastructure must be for the benefit of all. The quality of leadership in any organisation is linked to the outlook of the things that the organisation presides over.
If our sports infrastructure is in disrepair and others are being mismanaged, the plausible assumption is that the government either does not know or is careless. Why do we erect structures yet leave them to rot like Essipong or mismanage them like the NSA is doing to the Accra Sports Stadium and others?
The leadership is boldly incompetent but sadly, the government looks on. The politicos would not care. This is how they have treated Ghana sports except it is about self-serving matters like the unconscionable dissipation of World Cup funds.
So, I understand the disappointment of Kurt Okraku, the GFA President. I shed no tears, however, with him. His association, conspiring with our governments since 2006, has been part of the rot – the lack of priorities and wastefulness that has ensured that we do not have modern football facilities today.
Ghana does not have infrastructure that national teams can use yet we have had millions of dollars to camp in luxurious hotels abroad. And the ones we have, we are not taking diligent care of it because those charged with its stewardship are just clueless about their mandate. This is the reality of sports in Ghana. It is the sad case of Ghana sports.