Wembley Artificial turf in 270 Constituency in Ghana: A good deal for sports development

Football in the world is arguably the biggest sporting event, with 6 Confederation, 211 Associations affiliated to FIFA and more than one million teams around the world, creating not only avenue for employment and foreign direct investment, but a means to curb societal challenges. Investing in football has the potential of yielding enormous dividend.

I was extremely excited when I read a story published by Nathan Quao of citifmonline.com on Wednesday 13th July, 2016, which revealed that “Ghana to get $5 million FIFA support for football development “. The fund was from project “FORWARD”, an initiative by FIFA’s aimed at growing the game in all member Association. Immediately, I searched online to verify how much FIFA invests in football development. Overwhelmingly, I chanced upon  40million USD to confederation. Fairly, Ghana also has a shared of the global cake. The question is what did we use our funds for and have we accounted for them? Can we boast of a grass root developmental project which has fully been accomplished?

Well, I leave that for another discussion Ghana Football needs massive development especially infrastructure. It sudden my heart anytime it rained, major football games were halted due to the bad pitches which eventually becomes worse making it difficult for players to even kick the soccer ball. Aside that, the hard surfaces, coupled with gravels or stones in our communities exposing some of the players especially the kids and youth to injury is very high. Interestingly, some of these kids from the communities’ love playing football on this worse pitches not because of its bad nature, but they love the game.

Great players have risen through these same pitches, challenged themselves and are now competing globally with counterparts who in their whole life played on artificial turf, good grass among others.From the community pitches in Madina number 1 park, La-Bawaleshie Presby Park, Teshie, among others are even evidence which needs no verification. Many communities in the 275 constituency in Ghana cannot even boast of community owned sports facility let alone a descent recreational facility. Some of these soccer pitches have been turned into residential apartments, stores among others. What can be done to resolve these issues? Can Ghana vaunt for excellent pitch owned by the state which can withstand rains during soccer game? Baba Yara Sports Stadium, or Ohene Djan Sports Stadium or Tamale or the recently commissioned Cape Coast Stadium which one?

Lack of maintenance culture also account for the bad football pitches in Ghana. A typical example was Shatta Wale concert on Saturday, February 18, 2017 at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium. It was reported after the event that, the grass on the pitch has been destroyed.

 Yet, our players who even spend hours on these hard football pitches performed very well when given that international exposure. So give these same deprived communities the state-of-art facility and one would be amazed what these generations of footballers will do globally.

No one can object how better football pitches contributes massively towards the “attractiveness” of the match. Bad pitches on the contrary not only impedes the performance of the game but have the tendency to expose players to severe injuries. I was not surprised when Accra Hearts of Oak were beaten by 5 goals to nil by WAFA in their home grounds last weekend Ghana Premier League clash. Both team played well, but a vivid observation of the game revealed that their turf to a larger extent did the trick. The WAFA team are used to the artificial turf which has over the years improved their game. No wonder they often struggle to play out of their home grounds. This is to say good pitches also contributes immensely to the quality of football.

Now, this complains would be a thing of the past. An initiative by Wembley Sports Complex Construction Limited’s (WSCCL) to construct artificial soccer turf at for 275 constituencies is a step in the right direction for football development in the country especially development of grass. It is possible and we the advocate of grass root football development are very pleased with this initiative. This project must be supported not only by the government but all stakeholders in football. The project is expected to commence this year.

To have a well-furnished artificial turf in Ghana of these size, deep consultation with the stakeholders in the constituencies must be taken into consideration, due diligence must be done well, monitoring and evaluation must be in place to ensure proper and effective utilization of the funds for the project. With the experience professionals at Wembley Sports Complex Construction Limited’s (WSCCL), I believe they will do a great job to ensure value for the investment.

Evidently, WSCCL were the contractors for the ultramodern artificial turf for the various pitches in Kotobabi, Nungua and Dzorwulu as well as the Accra Academy football pitch sponsored by Asamoah Gyan, Captain of the Ghana Black Stars. They need no introduction in the but their experience work literally speaks for itself.

Robert Tetteh Coleman, the CEO of Wembley Sports Complex Construction Limited’s (WSCCL) revealed that, the ‘One Constituency, One Artificial Turf’ project in 270 constituencies in Ghana. He added that construction of the first batch of Artificial Turfs is expected to commence this year after its official launch this month.

This construction of the pitches will create employment to members of the community, improve grass root football in Ghana, establish recreational grounds in the communities, provide suitable grounds for social event among others. This deal is feasible, achievable and in the long run will help develop football in the country. I support “one Constituency one artificial turfs” the future of Ghana football development.