Gov't secures Spanish grant for tartan tracks

Accra, Aug 3, GNA - The government is in the process of securing an 8.7 million dollar Spanish grant for the reconstruction of the tartan tracks at the Accra and Kumasi Sports Stadiums to help revive athletics in the country, President John Agyekum Kufuor said on Saturday.

Addressing the 28th Annual awards night of the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) in Accra, the President said the grant would also enable the provision of similar facilities at the Winneba Sports College and some selected tertiary institutions.

He said the provision of such facilities forms part of measures government is putting in place to reverse the stagnation and helplessness that have characterised the sporting sector in recent years.

President Kufuor said it is clear that the fault lies in the failure to approach sports from a scientific and technological perspective without which "we should not expect much more than just the pleasure and leisure that comes from participating".

He said it is time a professional attitude is adopted in the promotion of sports in the country especially in events that it has a comparative advantage over the rest of the world.
President Kufuor said an objective comparison of the country's current sporting form to the high standards of the world, reveals an uncanny link between education, youth and investments in sports.
He said government in accepting its part of the responsibility of helping to discover sporting talents in the youth through the agency of the educational institutions, has merge the ministry of Youth and Sports to the general Ministry of Education.
President Kufuor said since it has became evidently clear that academia, youth and sports are bedfellows, the Ghana Education Service has reinstated Physical Education and related Sports as compulsory activities in all first and second cycle institutions.
He said there is also the need for scouting of athletes in their early youth in educational institutions, which are rightly perceived as the natural nurseries properly, equipped with the infrastructure to nourish them.
President Kufuor encouraged authorities in tertiary education to create conditions, which would grant Sportsmen and women access to further education as well as the granting of scholarships and bursaries for students as practiced in most developed sporting countries.
He asked the local government system through its metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to view development of sports and its infrastructure as a top priority to help unearth talents that abound in the urban and rural areas.
President Kufuor announced that the security services have also decided to reintroduce their annual sports competition dubbed "SESSA" since quite a number of the country's distinguished athletes of the past came from the security services.
He tasked all to join in the crusade to find out what has gone wrong with Ghana sports since our failures or dismal performances unleashes huge waves of grief great disappointment which drives us to look for scapegoats.
"We should realise, however, that sports is subject to the laws of cause and effects; one reaps what one sows. For some time now, this nation has invested very little in sports which is undoubtedly a major contributory factor to the persistent spiral in our sporting performance."
He said the country would be going forward in its bid to host the 2008 African Cup of Nations and would do all in its best to fulfill the major requirement for winning the bid which is the provision of at least four high class stadiums.
President Kufuor said government therefore has to build two more new stadiums at Tamale and Sekondi-Takoradi as well as upgrade the existing ones at Accra and Kumasi to enhance the chances of the Kofi Amoah Committee to win the bid.
He announced that the government has accepted the report of the Joe Aggrey, Committee on Sports Development and has established a subcommittee to oversee its implementation.
President Kufuor said the Ministry would soon introduce a bill for the establishment of a national trust to fund for sport and infrastructure development.
He said the bill proposes private sector participation in sports development and the promotion as well as granting of tax relief for sponsors and supporters of sports programmes.