'Put our players on payroll' - Ghana wheelchair tennis team assistant coach tells government

The assistant coach of the Ghana wheelchair tennis team and deputy secretary for the Greater Accra Tennis Association, Philip Plange, has called on the government and the Ghana Tennis Federation to put wheelchair tennis players on the payroll of the federation.

This comes after the Ghana wheelchair tennis team was attacked by armed robbers in Ogun State, Nigeria, in which three players got injured while others suffered minor injuries.

Speaking exclusively to Univers Sports, Philip Plange highlighted some of the challenges bedevilling the Ghana wheelchair tennis team and appealed to the government and the Ghana tennis federation to put their players on the federation’s payroll to lessen their plight.

"We can say the three main challenges that Ghana wheelchair association is going through is when it comes to travel we struggle to get Visa and financial constraints. The problem is we don’t have money to travel because this one like this we are supposed to go by flight but because there is no money we went by Bus and everything has been left on our coordinator who is Henry Larbi helping us with his own money and currently as it stands the players traveling expenses is on me and our national federation says the money with me is a loan which we don’t know how we are going to pay the money back, it was thousand two hundred" Philip Plange lamented to Univers Sports.

He therefore made an appeal to the government and the Ghana Tennis Federation to come to their aid.

"Players will go for a tournament when they come they don’t get anything now that we have returned it is our coordinator who said I should come for money and give it to the players if not nobody is coming to our aid if it continues like this maybe some of them will find themselves at the roadside again which is not a good news so we are appealing to the government to put our players on a payroll and then also let them be recognized by the federation", He told Univers Sports.

The team has arrived safely in Ghana following the robbery attack in Nigeria.