Club system will transform Ghana athletics – Bawah pushes for inter-club championship era

The President of Ghana Athletics, Bawah Fuseini, has outlined an ambitious plan to revolutionize the country’s athletics structure by transitioning from a regional-based competition system to a more competitive club-driven model.

Speaking on Sporty FM, Bawah revealed that efforts are already underway to build a strong foundation for running clubs across the country, with over 50 clubs currently in existence.

“We have now started encouraging coaches to develop or to form clubs, and now we have more than 50 athletic clubs, but they’re all at infant stages,” he said.

According to Bawah, the long-term vision is to introduce an Inter-Club Championship that would replace the traditional National Championship format making club affiliation a requirement for participation.

“We want to develop that so that in the near future we’ll have Inter Club Championship instead of National Championship. If you do not have a club, you are not going to compete,” he stated.

He emphasized that the club system would significantly improve competitiveness among athletes and coaches, creating a more dynamic and merit-based environment compared to the current regional setup.

“We have seen that the club system will help Ghana athletes more than the regional system,” Bawah noted.

Under the proposed structure, multiple clubs within each region will compete internally before advancing, fostering deeper competition and talent discovery.

“Within the regional system, you can have more than 10 clubs. They will do their own trials and then compete among themselves. Now they don’t compete among regions they compete among clubs,” he explained.

Bawah also criticized the limitations of the regional format, pointing out that it often lacked rivalry and failed to inspire performance improvements, particularly in historically underperforming regions.

“There was no rivalry, there was no competition among coaches. It became a norm that some regions would always finish last."

“Now things are changing. When the clubs are developed, it will help Ghana athletics a lot,” he added.

PAH/JE