Apologetic state of our stadia

It is an undeniable fact that Ghanaians are passionate about sports, especially football, known to Americans as soccer.

It, however, appears that those in charge of sports, especially maintenance of its infrastructure, are either fast asleep or are not aware of what is happening to these facilities.

The Ghanaian media, over the years, have lamented over the poor state of our sports stadia, hoping that, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and National Sports Authority (NSA) will act, but nothing has been done.

The first to receive the attention of the local media was the Accra Sports Stadium, which was one of the venues for the 2008 African Cup of Nations matches. When Ghana initially had the nod to host the tournament, the then government rebuilt, upgraded and modernized the facility, together with the Kumasi Sports Stadium, and built two new ones at Sekondi and Tamale to meet FIFA standards.

The government spent approximately GH¢30m on the Accra Sports Stadium, which included the refurbishment of the state box, replacement of broken seats, re-grassing of the pitch, which was in a terrible state; replacement of broken and weak iron gates, provision of an ultra-modern scoreboard, provision of lawn mowers, sprinklers, water hoses and replacement of toilet facilities, as well as painting of the entire stadium.

Eight years down the line, all these beautiful and glamorous units at the Stadium have deteriorated.

The various sporting facilities at the stadium are now in very deplorable state, with some not just requiring renovation but replacement, if indeed the country was bent on bringing it to its normal status.

According to media reports, the pitch is in a very bad condition, the once desirable washrooms are in an appalling state, smelling with urine and the floodlights not functioning, leading to the abrupt end of two high profiled matches, the Stephen Appiah testimonial and the Mo Ibrahim Cup, simply because the matches travelled late into the night, due to the lack of floodlights.

The Kumasi Sports Stadium has not been spared its share of the deterioration, as the pitch and other facilities in there are in very poor state.

The story about the Tema Sports Stadium and the Azumah Nelson Sports Complex, formerly Kaneshie Sports Complex, in Accra, where seats and toilet facilities among others are completely out of place, are better left untold.

On Friday, May 20, myjoyonline.com published a story headlined “Photo of the week: Wake up to El-Wak sports stadium deterioration”.

According to the story, “The El-Wak Sports Stadium in Accra is in need of repair and maintenance”.

President John Evans Atta Mills in 2009 announced that the El-Wak Sports Stadium will be upgraded to a 50,000-seater capacity.

But even before an upgrade begins, there is every need for some immediate repair, replacement and maintenance for the Ghana Armed Forces-owned sports facility.

The Chronicle is at a loss as to why a nation with such a huge passion for sports would allow its facilities to deteriorate to this extent.

While asking what the NSA does with the revenue it generates from thepercentages and charges accruing  from the use of the various stadia, The Chronicle believes  the time has come for the  nation to learn from others and do things right.

Our politicians have used sports as strategy to win votes and, therefore, have the duty to ensure that our sporting facilities are well kept. The new Minister of Youth and Sports, NiiLanteyVanderpuiye has promised to ensure that sometime is done to bring back facilities at our stadia to standard.  We only hope that he would transform his verbiage on the matter to concrete action that would benefit the nation.