NSC inaugurates Armwrestling, Mixed Marshall Arts federations

The National Sports Authority (NSC) has warned that sports federations which fail to assume national appeal, nature and character, risk a revocation of their license.

The Deputy Director-General of the authority in-charge of Technical, Saka Acquaye said the laws establishing the federations, enjoins them to have regional and district associations, a strategy to promote the interests, rights and social cohesion of Ghanaians.

He gave the warning on Tuesday when he inaugurated two new federations; the Ghana Armwrestling Federation (GAF) and the Ghana Mixed Marshall Arts Federation (GMMAF).

Armwrestling involves two participants, each places one arm on a surface with their elbows bent and touching the surface, and they grip each other's hand. The goal is to pin the other's arm onto the surface, with the winner's arm over the loser's arm. It is a traditional recreation in most African communities but interest in it as a professional sport started early this year when the Ghana Armwrestling Federation was formed to spearhead the promotion of the game.

Two championships have since been held in Accra and Kumasi.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) on the otherhand is a full-contact combat sport that allows both striking and grappling, both standing and on the ground, using techniques from other combat sports and martial arts and the sport has gained momentum among many Ghanaian youth in recent times.

The Armwrestling Federation is headed by Mr Charles Osei Assibey while the Mixed Marshall Arts Federation is led by Mr Jeff Taylor.

The inauguration of the two brings to 40, the number of sporting federations legally known to the National Sports Authority.

Mr Acqquaye said due to dwindling financing, the authority has been unable to support the federations as it desires, a situation that has made many of the sporting disciplines apart from football lesser known sports.

“When Ghana didn’t have oil, Youth and Sports Ministry was given about GH 54million cedis in annual budgets but now that we have oil, we get something around GH22million cedis out of which GHC12 million cedis is for salaries and emoluments alone”, he lamented.

He however urged the youth to take to sporting activities because of their numerous benefits such as scholarships, easy employment and increase in life expectancy.

He presented licenses to the leadership of the two federations.

A Director of the authority in-charge of the Eastern Region, Josiah Mensah congratulated the two new federations and stressed the need for them to decentralise their activities.

Speaking on behalf of the two federations, Mr Osei Assibey thanked the government through the National Sports Authority for the recognition and asked corporate Ghana to help in the promotion of the two new sports.