December 17, 2013

Member of Parliament for Atwima Mponua, Hon. Isaac Asiamah has kicked against any attempt by government to select party supporters ahead of known members of the various national team supporters group to next year’s World Cup in Brazil.

He said such a move would create disaffection among the supporter groups who have genuinely showed a lot of commitment towards the national teams whenever they play both within Ghana and abroad.

There have been incidents where during past world cup tournaments ruling party supporters are sponsored to venues of world cups to cheer the national teams much to the disappointment of the genuine supporters.

Hon. Isaac Asiamah who is also the Ranking Member of the Parliamentary Committee on Youth, Sports and Culture made the comments while supporting the Committee report on the 2014 budget allocation for the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

He also questioned why the Cape Coast Sports Stadium has consistently appeared in annual budgets for five years but no substantial work was on-going there, calling for attention to be focused on that project to ensure that the project is completed in earnest.

Parliament on Tuesday approved GHC 36,134,116.00 for the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The Minister for Youth and Sports, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, who moved the motion on the floor gave the program for the Ministry for 2014.

He said the Black Stars would participate in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, the Black Queens would participate in the 2014 Africa Women qualifiers and championships. The local Black Stars would participate in the African nation’s champion in South Africa, National female U-17 football team; the Black Maidens would partake in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Tournament to be held in Costa Rica.

He said Ghana would participate in 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

A report by the Committee of Youth Sports showed that though Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) was under the Ministry no allocation was made to the Agency in the 2014 annual estimates for the Ministry.

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