Edem Agbana, the spokesperson for sports for the National Democratic Congress’s manifesto, has revealed plans of the party to invest in sports by providing allowances and salaries to players for both men and women if its flagbearer wins the December 7, election in Ghana.
Speaking to GHOne TV Sports, Edem Agbana stated that President Mahama and the NDC has planned to invest in sports by supporting teams in the Premier League, supporting women’s and men’s football, in paying player salaries and allowances.
“A beacon of hope especially in the area of sports today our league is so poor that even in the national team you cannot find a single local player even in the team at all so it means that there’s something missing we need to improve the quality of the league. How do you do that? You must make sure you work on motivation. How do we motivate the players, every sector of the economy has enjoyed some sort of support from the government before, I recall in 2016 under the NDC President Mahama deliberately decided to invest in the pharmaceutical industry and so all the local companies within that sector enjoyed what we call stimulus package a financial package from government.
“Because we are now seeing sports as an important sector to develop, we are promising that from 2025 President Mahama and the NDC will invest in sports by supporting the teams in the Premier League the women’s football Ghana Premier League for the men’s football we support the teams to pay salaries to allowances to their players” He stated.
Edem Agbana further stated that the NDC government will provide support to both sportsmen and women in securing professional jobs beyond their respective sports disciplines after retirement.
“We have done some calculations with some figures in mind and we are confident that this is feasible and that is why we have maintained that we also want to ensure that retired players or sportsmen and women are supported to develop another career within the sporting ecosystem, for example as we speak today there are some ex-footballers some even have been players who played for the national team who today are on social media begging sometimes, they have to raise funds for them before they can afford three square meals a day” He stated.
“It is sad because sports is such a career that you do it within a very short period of your life and by the time you are aging you are not fit enough to engage and still be earning and so many ex-sportsmen and women are struggling with what can we do there are other careers people can be supported to become coaches”.
“Today, if you go to the English Premier League most of the top coaches are former footballers even in Ghana a few of them got the support and they started learning to be coaches the likes of Laryea Kingston and Co today are all coaches you get it very key so the government will support sportsmen and women or to embark on other careers that are sports-related so that after their years of sacrifice and service to this country they can still have another means of generating some income or livelihood and it’s very important”, he told GHOne TV.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Christian Kobby Quarshie
