Sports and Recreation Minister Kofi Adams has defended the government’s focus on grassroots and school sports, saying work is underway to establish a structure that will support athletes from the basic level to elite competition.
Speaking on TV3’s Hot Issues with Keminni Amanor, Adams said the government had identified grassroots sports as a priority and had taken steps to build the system needed to support it.
“Clearly what people talked about is exactly what we have identified, that grassroots sports must be strengthened,” he said.
He added that President John Mahama had outlined the plan in his first State of the Nation Address in 2025.
“If you listen to everybody talk now, they say we must go back to the grassroots. We must go to our schools and make sure that school sports is strengthened,” Adams said.
According to him, the government had appointed a national coordinator and a deputy coordinator to help establish the necessary structures.
“You don’t just start and things happen. You have to build the structure, the structure on which the school sports and the grassroots sports will function,” he said.
Adams explained that the work involved coordinating the various sporting federations and creating a system that would support athletes from the foundational level through tertiary education and into elite competition.
He said the aim was to build a pathway that could eventually help athletes progress to Division One, the Premier League and the national teams.
“If God gives us grace, the elite stage where they can play in Division One, the premiership or even the national teams at the various levels, all this is being worked on,” he added.
