President of the Ghana Rugby Association, Herbert Mensah has attributed Ghana’s failure to win trophies at international tournaments to government’s poor funding approach to teams before major tournaments.
According to the former Kotoko chairman, the country has failed to live up to expectations due to what he describes as philosophical mindset which has denied the country from winning trophies because teams are only funded two weeks before tournaments.
He believes the only time Ghana won a trophy at a tournament is when the country invested in long term preparations.
“If there is an obligation for the Ministry to fund Taekwondo, boxing or something, they may pay two weeks before you travel,” Herbert Mensah told Kwabena Yeboah on GTV’s Sports Highlight show.
He went on to say, “You see, anytime we’ve won the four tournaments we’ve won, it takes six to eight months planning approach towards this. So the African Cup we are now, we started preparing in November last year for a June/July tournament. So where do you get the money and funding from to make it work?”
Herbert Mensah explained that until government appointees and other authorities embrace change and approach sports management as an investment, the country will continue to perform poorly at tournaments.
“The way we look at sports management must change. Until you get that philosophical mindset change and now approach it like say, I’m sitting here as the minister, Ghana sports needs $40 million, we are likely to get $2 or $3 million, how are we going to bridge the gap if you at NSA, so that you will take the pressure of the Minister. It’s not good when politicians say we’ve set up a sports fund because their theory does not match the practice,” the president of Ghana Rugby Association said.
He added, “This is not me attacking anybody but let’s just say we should be open to change, let’s understand our limitations, understand sports as a global sport, lets market excellence, don’t be afraid of the person who will say something you don’t want to hear at the end of the day you are only there to serve the people.
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