Create separate sports ministry -Chief advocates

Kumasi, Oct 14, GNA -A traditional ruler has entreated the government to consider creating a separate ministry for sports to effectively address pertinent issues hindering its development in the country.

Nana Osei Tutu, chief of Apatrapa in the Kumasi Metropolis who made the suggestion, pointed out that sports had taken a global and serious dimension and should therefore not be treated as secondary to any sector.

Speaking to the GNA Sports in Kumasi on Wednesday, Nana Osei Tutu, who is a former player of Bofoakwa Tano Football club said Ghana's dismal performance at the 28th Olympic Games in Athens should send a clear message to the government that all was not well with the nation's sports.

He said the integration of Education, Youth and Sports under one ministry as it stands now would to some extent help turn out physically and academically sound youth but noted that little progress could be made in the Ministry's bid to develop sports to an appreciable level.

Nana Osei Tutu while commending the government for honouring some past sports heroes into the Sport Hall of Fame recently, also advocated the creation of Regional Old Players Committees to be tasked with the responsibility of identifying football talents at the grassroots and to recommend them for the various national teams.

He decried the low standard that Ghana football had sunk and therefore called for effective measures to be put in place to entice sponsors to invest in football development.

On the impasse between Dr Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe, Chairman of the Ghana football Association (GFA) and the GFA Executive Council, he called on President John Agyekum Kufuor to intervene to get the two factions to smoke the peace pipe.

"Ghana football will be the loser in the end if we do not put our house in order", he added.