Minister Interacts with Exchequers and Extinguishers

The Honourable Minister for Youth and Sports Mr. Edward Osei Kweku, this morning interacted with the players and officials of Ghana’s representatives at the 15th edition of the Africa Cup for Club Champions for Men and the 7th edition of the competition for women scheduled for Pretoria South Africa.
The interaction afforded the Honourable Minister the opportunity to learn at first hand of the preparedness of the Clubs and to convey the goodwill message from His Excellency the President and the government and people of Ghana.
The Honourable Minister told the clubs that after watching them during the 14th edition staged in Accra in 2002, he was convinced that after a year, they had become better teams that were capable of beating any opposition in Africa. He therefore charged them to improve on their performance of the previous year and bring the Gold medal to Ghana.
He paid tribute to the two institutions and indeed all other institutions that have supported and keep supporting the game of hockey. He also assured the management of the institutions and the clubs that the Ministry was solidly behind them in their quest for the ultimate prize in African Clubs hockey and charged them to be worthy ambassadors of the country.
In a show of the Ministry’s commitment to support the clubs, the Honourable Minister announced that his office was making available ?10.0 million to each club.
In attendance to support the Honourable Minister was the dynamic Chief Executive of the National Sports Council Dr. E. Owusu Ansah who was full of praise for the management of the Clubs and encouraged them to fly high the flag of Ghana in South Africa. In a show of his office’s motivation to the Clubs, he made available to the contingent some National Sports Council souvenir pins to enable them make new friends during their stay in South Africa.
In his address to the clubs, the chairman of the Ghana Hockey Association Oko-Nikoi Dzani thanked the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana National Fire Service for making it possible for their clubs to represent the country at such a high profile competition. He assured the Minister that the Gold that had eluded Ghana sports because the concentration had been on soccer was indeed within the grasp of hockey. He charged other clubs to be motivated by the fete of the two clubs to intensify the competition for the right to represent Ghana in subsequent championships. The clubs are due to leave Ghana for South Africa on Monday March 17, 2003 to acclimatize and familiarize themselves with the water-based turf.