Minister-Designate for Sports and Recreation under the new National Democratic Congress (NDC), Hon. Kofi Iddie Adams finally appeared before the Appointment Committee on Thursday evening for vetting.
Kofi Adams’ vetting had been postponed from Wednesday due to the hauling before the committee of social activist Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor over some bribery allegations against the Majority members on the Committee.
In a rather similar fashion, Kofi Adams appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament after a marathon of vetting involving the Minister-designate for Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations, Sam Nartey George.
After initial unrest that ensued between former Sports Minister, Mustapha Yusif and the Committee’s Chairman Bernard Ahiafor after the latter overruled the former’s time to ask question over what he termed “long preamble” by the NPP’s former Sports Minister, peace was restored.
Responding to how he [Kofi Adams] and his NDC government are going to keep and maintain the various infrastructure in the country, the Buem Constituency Member of Parliament stated he’s committed to keep stadiums and other sporting facilities in good shape to their usable standards.
“There are stadiums and training centres that have been left to deteriorate over time. If we are serious about producing world-class athletes, then we must make sure they have the right facilities to train and compete,” he told the Committee.
“We will not allow any facility to deteriorate to the point where we could even be banned from using it. With the very minimal resources we have, we will ensure that we maintain our existing facilities while also building new ones.” he said.
CAF/FIFA in recent times have banned Ghana from using the Accra Sports Stadium, Baba Yara and Cape Coast Sports for international football games due to inability for the edifices to meet standard requirements.
CAF/FIFA wrote to the Ghana Football Association in 2022:
“Following the one match approval given by CAF for the use of Baba Yara Sports Stadium (Kumasi) in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 African qualifiers playoff round matches under the condition that specific points were to be corrected in the stadium, based on the report received from the CAF inspector that was onsite, we regret to inform you that the improvements made are still not up to the standards required by CAF to host Senior International A matches.
“Unfortunately, the level of implementation of all the CAF remarks in the stadium were not satisfactory, including the quality of the equipment’s and materials used in the different functional areas in the stadium. As a result of the reported situation, we have taken the following decision:”
“Formal prohibition is made to use the Baba Yara Sports Stadium (Kumasi) in all CAF/FIFA Senior international A matches. The stadium is automatically removed from the list of CAF approved stadiums and will only be approved for any subsequent CAF/FIFA international senior national teams matches and CAF Men’s inter-clubs competitions following the implementation of all the CAF remarks”.
On September 11, 2024, the Confederation of African Football wrote to the GFA banning Ghana’s only approved stadium, the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi, from hosting international matches, in a spectacular move that has unmasked the sorry infrastructure state of Ghanaian football after Ghana versus Angola in the 2025 AFCON qualifying match.
The honorable nominee’s response is in line with His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama’s broader scope of sports and infrastructure development under his administration.
