Yes, other sports deserve better!
At a press conference involving all the federations of sports in the country, except football, last Tuesday, the federations made their intentions known as to what their next move would be in the face of the dwindling or virtual non-existent funding of their activities by the state.
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The 40 federations also stated clearly the financial remuneration or bonuses agreed upon with the sports authorities prior to the All Africa Games in Brazzaville, Congo, against the post-games cacophony brought about by the gold-winning Black Queens.
For the avoidance of doubt, the President of the Ghana Badminton Association, Mr Nestor Ghalley, gave the breakdown as follows: $5,000 for gold, $2,000 for silver and $1,500 for bronze for performances by individual athletes, while excellence by team sports carried $2,000 for gold, $1,000 for silver and $500 for bronze.
“We must be very careful the manner in which we are handling sports in this country, otherwise the attention on one sport will be at the detriment of the other sports,” he said.
And we can’t agree more with Mr Ghalley and leaders of the other disciplines against the manner the paying authorities had to bend backwards to satisfy the protesting football Queens for much higher remuneration.
We had earlier stated our disapproval of the behaviour of the young ladies but felt shattered by President John Mahama’s fiat, while he was on an international mission outside the country, that $5,000, instead of $2,000, be paid to each member of the team.
We felt the President should have encouraged his representative on sports, the minister of the sector, to handle the matter, instead of him himself condescending, as it were, making it appear that any knotty issue in sports would have to draw the President in for a solution.
Therefore, it must have come as no surprise when the other federations indicated last Tuesday that they would petition the President (and not the Sports Minister nor the National Sports Authority) over their thousand and one concerns, including the apparent discrimination against them.
We suspect that petition will also carry the controversial suggestion by the former First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, who is the President of the Ghana Handball Association, Mr Ken Dzirasah, that sporting activities in the country be placed in the cooler for five years.
It is Dzirasah’s view that with sporting activities in hibernation or on suspension, the time would be ripe for the bill on sports, which is weighing heavily on the nation, to be lightened.
Of course, the nation is indebted to sports federation presidents such as Dzirasah, Ghalley, Ben Nunoo Mensah, Mawuko Afadzinu, Frederick Otoo Lartey, among others, who continue to finance the disciplines that they head from their private pockets because the national budget for sports is so meagre that most of the disciplines are not catered for.
It is heart-throbbing to hear Dzirasah choke on his recount of the use of his private property as collateral to raise funds to support the national handball team but had still not been paid back.
But, much as we empathise with Dzirasah and others for their huge expenditure in the development of the other sports, his call for a freeze on sporting activities for half a decade cannot be the way out of the financial malaise confronting Ghana sports.
For, how can Ghana not be seen among the comity of nations in the sporting arena competing against the best in the world in these times when sports has become a major driver in international relations?
What, perhaps, we think Dzirasah can prescribe is for the authorities to ensure that only disciplines that can offer the country comparative advantage at international competitions are made to enter, so that we can save some money for infrastructural development and the promotion of other sports locally.
But, for sure, if we stay out of international sports for whatever length of time, by the time we return our rivals would have made giant strides that would make it difficult for us to catch up with them.