By Ernest Bako WUBONTO
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) won the 2024 General Election with a landslide victory, a reflection of the trust Ghanaians have placed in them to turn the current poor economic situation around and address systemic challenges in the various sectors.
Sports, especially football, have long been described as the passion of the nation, uniting all and sundry, promoting patriotism at the international level and creating economic opportunities for young talents.
However, the sector has been bedevilled with some chronic systemic challenges that have brought retrogression to the development and performance of the nation in all sporting disciplines across board.
With challenges such as chronic under-investment, poor administration practices, corruption and abandonment of grassroots talent development characterising the sector, the current state of sporting performance at the international level and local sports infrastructure quality is dejecting.
The last nail in the coffin is the failure of the Black Stars, the nation’s flagship football brand, to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations (AfCON 2025) – placing last in its group. This has generated several calls for a reset of the sports sector in general, considering the fact that even in track and field, the country has not been able to achieve any meaningful glory in recent times.
With a change in government, the public, especially key stakeholders in sports, are optimistic of some meaningful changes influenced by sound policies. Let’s take a second look at the NDC’s proposed manifesto promises.
The NDC’s sports development plan expected to be implemented as the newly-elected party, dubbed the ‘Comprehensive National Sports Policy’ (NSP), includes pursuing the long-standing policy of establishing international standard stadia in all regions; building more multi-purpose sports facilities to promote regional sporting events and inter-school competitions as part of its talent development policy; and offering scholarships to promising sports talents while investing in establishing sports academies through partnership with the private sector.
The NSP mentioned policies such as supporting the development of colts, divisions one and two and the Ghana Premier League (GPL) by augmenting the salaries of all registered footballers with allowances; establishing sports centres of excellence in the northern, middle and southern zones in collaboration with existing universities and the private sector; and undertaking the emergency refurbishment of pitches, tracks and other facilities at the national stadia in Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, Cape Coast and Sekondi to meet FIFA standards, among others.
During its campaign launch, the flagbearer said: “The next NDC government shall, thus, focus on systematic long-term investments in sports under a comprehensive National Sports Policy (NSP) to guide the development of sports infrastructure, sporting talents and human resource, sports governance and administration ethics, life-long participation and inclusivity, sports for economic and social development”.
He added that the party aims to substantially improve sports infrastructure, foster talent development nationwide and provide balanced support to all national teams. “We will ensure equitable investments in other national teams: such as women’s football teams, parasports teams, juvenile teams and lesser-known sports,” he said.
The NDC also mentioned that it will support retired sports personalities in pursuing other sports-related careers after an active sporting life and upgrade the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) Sports College into a modern sports university offering training programmes in sports-related medicine and science.
Transformation of the sporting sector and talent development is attainable if key highlights such as the promise to create sports academies across the country, ensure every region gets a FIFA standard multi-purpose stadium, scholarships for outstanding talents and centres of excellence in the three zones, among others, are implemented to the letter; and administrative theft is curtailed.
The National Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyemfi, recently admitted in an interview on the TV3 Morning Show that no government can implement all its manifesto promises due to resource constraints; however, at least a 70 percent success rate is fair.
The sports fraternity will monitor the implementation process keenly to measure commitment to delivering these ideas to transform the sector considering the urgent need for investment in the sporting spectrum.
Students of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) Sports College will be excited now and optimistic to see the transformation of their faculty into a modern sports university offering training programmes.
The development of the nation’s human resources would be critical to value addition and unearthing more talents for international duties.
The Ghana Premier League (GPL) clubs and other local clubs will all be watching this space hoping to witness a policy that will bring transformation.
The NDC has touted its track record of investment in boxing with the construction of the Bukom Boxing Arena, the single most significant boxing facility in the country; and the stakeholders will be expecting to see more, but won’t they be disappointed considering the current state of the fiscal space?
Next Sport Minister
Whoever is appointed the next Sports Minister will have a lot of work to do and must have a tough skin to succeed. Some stakeholders in the sector still talk about Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye’s exceptional leadership in taking on the Ghana Football Association (GFA) executives for all the wrong reasons.
He has taken a bow out of active politics as a Member of Parliament and it is not clear if he will be reappointed the minister for the sector but apart from him, whoever comes in to occupy that seat must take a cue from his style and be very aggressive to be able to address some of the systemic inefficiencies citizens have always complained about.
While congratulating the NDC on its resounding victory, the humble plea is for the sports sector to be given all the necessary attention it deserves to realise the needed transformation citizens are looking forward to.
A successful implementation of this NSP, especially, will transcend into more support for them in the next election; if not, the contrary will be true.
