Badminton Association of Ghana issues a rejoinder on false reportage

The Badminton Association of Ghana (BAG) has issued a rejoinder to a publication stating that the association failed to pay two athletes £5,000 for Commonwealth Games scholarship in 2017.

A statement from the President of the BAG Mr. Evans Yeboah and copied to the

GNA Sports said the story was false with no iota of truth in it.

It said “Attention of the Ghana Badminton Association has been drawn to an article headlined “Scandal: GOC ‘failed to pay two athletes £5,000 Commonwealth Games scholarship” and we would want to state that there is no iota of truth in the said allegations and entreat all Ghanaians to disregard it.

“The Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) made available funds sourced from the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) for National Federations to prepare athletes for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and indeed the funds were used for its intended purposes.

“The GOC press release in November 2017 stated that” under the applications received from federations regarding the commonwealth games grant. It added that federations heads would be required to account fully (with receipts) for any funds released to them. The grant awarded should be used to prepare the athlete in preparing and/or qualifying for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.”

“The said athlete, Grace Atipaka, represented Ghana at the April 2018 Gold Coast Games after participating in a series of seven international competitions and qualifiers in 2017 and February 2018. These series of competitions Ivory Coast Juniors, Ivory Coast International, Nigeria International, Benin International, World Championships, Indonesia, Algeria International Women’s Team Event, Algeria International Individual Events. The said scholarship grant together with the associations own support was able to assist and prepare the athlete for the multi-sport event.

“It should be noted that the scholarship was not “pocket money” for the athlete or a cash allowance for her but for her entire preparation towards the Commonwealth Games, which she cannot deny that she did not go for any qualifying international events in preparation prior to her participation in the Games. This was further highlighted to her during an orientation with her in 2017 and regrettably had not also received any formal complaint from the said athlete since 2017.

“The Ghana Badminton Association has also duly accounted for the said scholarship from the GOC in 2017 and takes no exception to this purported attempt to tarnish our image and reputation for no reason and therefore asks for a retraction and an apology from all media outlets who have published this a story without doing any due diligence.”