Professor Peter Twumasi, the Director General of the National Sports Authority (NSA) has urged the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and the various Premier League clubs to build and manage their own stadiums in order to reduce the pressure on the state-owned facilities that serve a host of various sporting disciplines.
Defending why the Cape Coast Stadium should have been approved to host international matches as it meets compliance requirements. The NSA boss stressed that the facility was well-prepared by his outfit to be certified and perfect for international championships.
"Our sports facilities cannot be kept as if we are playing Black Stars matches every day. The state has the facility for sports development across all sports so use the facilities to serve all other sports. The NSA facilities are not only for football but for athletics, rugby, volley as well as the school’s sports, among others. The facilities are for all manner of sports, especially grassroots,” Prof Twumasi told the Graphic Sports.
“I think it is high time the GFA built their own stadium. For example, the World Cup money that we get should be used for some of these things [building a stadium]. We can use the World Cup money to design a stadium purposely for football matters and the federation (GFA) will handle that."
“Not only the GFA but all the clubs playing in the premiership must own stadiums or venues good enough to host a match. If I have my way, every club that plays in the Premier League must demonstrate that they have their own stadium. If they don’t have the money, they can team up with the banks for loans to be deducted from their gate proceeds for a number of years.
“Football is business. Their purpose is organising professional players for money, transfer of players is for money so how can the clubs not have their own stadiums. When they come to play matches and we share the gate proceeds, sometimes the NSA receives peanuts because people don’t patronise the games,” he said.
Prof. Twumasi went further to address concerns about the need for external consultants who are connoisseurs in facility management, but he vehemently wash down on the questions surrounding the competence of the NSA staffs as he argued that his outfit has the brainiacs who possess the expertise to manage and maintain the various stadia's, whereby stating that CAF experts can't match his personnel at the NSA.
“I believe we have the technocrats to manage the facilities who are doing well. We already have the experts. Those working here are estate managers and they know their job. CAF experts may not even have the degrees that our workers have,” he insisted.
By: Pascal Amoah
