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| Sports Council tasked to review composition of Boards |
1/18/2007 |
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Accra (Gh) - 18 January 2007 – The National Sport Council (NSC) has been
urged to consider appointing ‘people who live and breathe particular sport
disciplines’ on Boards of those disciplines in place of the present system
where people with no love for such disciplines find their way unto the
Boards.
Albert Frimpong, a baseball enthusiast and one time captain of the
national Baseball team, in an interview with the GNA Sports said most of
the lesser known sports in the country are not developing and making
in-roads because a lot of ‘round holes have been put into square holes’ in
terms of memberships of the Associations.
“Aside the Ghana Football Association and a few others, most of the
associations appear to be in perpetual hibernation only to resurrect weeks
to major events for such officials to travel to get per diems and out of
station allowances.
“Clearly this attitude is not the type that wins medals or help in the
development of any sport”.
Mr Frimpong added, “How does one expect to be dormant for about eight
months only to resurrect for three months and expect to compete favorably
with someone who has been in competition all year round”.
He said that the no money excuse given on most occasions as the reason for
the boards being dormant, is not good enough because when one lives and
breathes a particular sport, there is no way that person will sit back and
watch issues deteriorate to the levels that we find ourselves in.
“A clear example of a way out is the case of John Clifford Aboagye,
Chairman of the Weightlifters Association, whom he said has on his own
borrowed money from the banks to keep the weightlifters in the gym
throughout the year and the results achieved at the last Commonwealth
Games was a clear manifestation of his individual hard work”.
“These are the type of people that I am pleading with the NSC to look for
and place at the helm of most of the associations if we want the lesser
known sports to win laurels internationally”.
He said a sport like baseball in Ghana is thriving because of the hard
work of individuals who have the game at heart without much central
control from the baseball association.
Mr Frimpong said without such central control support from the mother
association, most of them tend to fold up easily when obstacles appear,
because the members will not like to go through much hassle when those
mandated to do so sit back watching from the side lines.
He also tasked the NSC not to sit back for the tenure of such boards to
elapse before non-performing ones are replaced.
“There should be a frank yearly evaluation of all boards to ascertain
whether they are living up to the task given them by the NSC so that those
put at the helm of affairs will not rest on their oars during their tenure
of office”.
Mr Frimpong concluded that as the country celebrates its 50th Independence
anneversary, there is the need for frank evaluation of how far ‘we have
come as a country in terms of sports development to be able to put proper
structures in place to ensure Ghana competes favorably with the best of
the world. GRi…/
Source - GNA
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