Lack of funds affect Ghana’s preparations for Commonwealth Games

Ben Nunoo-Mensah, Ghana’s Chef de Mission for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, has expressed worry over the level of preparations towards the competition.

He told GNA Sports preparations had yet to commence for the selected disciplines for the Games due to lack of budgetary support from the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS).

Ghana will participate in boxing, athletics, table tennis, badminton, handball, tae-kwondo, swimming, weightlifting and disability Sports for the 23 July to 3 August next year.

He said “the ministry keeps saying there is no money for the Associations, and this is worrying because much will be expected from the team when we go to Glasgow.

“No one seems to be ready to invest in our preparations, yet they will expect medals from us. They want us to engage in last minute preparations, whilst other competing countries have been training for close to two years now.”

He said the rescheduling of the National Unity Games, which could have been used as preparatory grounds for the Commonwealth Games, also due to lack of funds has worsened the situation.

Nunoo-Mensah indicated that, the MoYS spent close to 400,000 dollars on the Ghana-Zambia 2014 World Cup qualifier last week in Kumasi, but has over the past months failed to provide funds for the associations.

“Some of these Associations need just 10,000 dollars to execute their activities for the year, yet we keep getting no money signal from them. But when it is about the Black Stars or any of the national football teams, they are able to raise funds for them.

“This trend must stop because football is popular enough to generate adequate corporate sponsorship to pave way for other sporting disciplines to develop” he added.

Seventy-one (71) Commonwealth countries will vie for honours in 17 sporting disciplines during the two-week event.

Source: GNA