By Simon Asare
Accra, Jan. 31, GNA – Mr. Kofi Adams, Minister Designate for Sports and Recreation, has emphasised the importance of improving the maintenance culture of the various sporting facilities in the country.
Appearing before the Appointment Committee of Parliament on Thursday, Mr. Adams, who is the Member of Parliament for Buem, emphasised the need to utilise Ghana’s sporting facilities by regularly maintaining them despite the limited resources available.
“We will not allow any facility to deteriorate to a point that we could even be banned from international competitions.
“So with the very minimal resources that we have, we are going to spend it to maintain what we have while we build new ones also,” he said.
The Sports and Recreation Minister Designate also said the government would also give priority to the development of lesser-known sports and not only football.
“I know armwrestling saved us at the 13th African Games but we will be investing in other sporting disciplines where we used to do so well, especially in boxing, athletics, etc.
“It is unfortunate that Ghana could feature in the recent African Cup of Nations draw, but we will work very hard to get back to the glory days,” he said.
Asked about how he was going to improve the quality of the league, Mr. Adams highlighted the need to give players some stipend to ensure retention in the league.
“We will also retain players by giving them some stipend so that they don’t go to other countries to play.
“We have talked about things that confront our Premier League. We will modernise the Winneba Sports College so that coaches will be trained there to help the league technically,” he stated.
GNA