"Football is the passion of the nation" we say. I believe you are not new to this saying on the streets of Ghana.
It's another day, and my desire to help Ghana sports to be at its peak left me thinking throughout last night. I was thinking about what I experienced on my way home yesterday. I saw kids playing football just around the roadside in Edwenase, a suburb of Kumasi and I asked them why they are playing along the road side and what they could say was that, they had no community park in the area. I was surprised though but I told them to find another place to play because a vehicle can run on them at any time.
This experience motivated me to probe the issue further. I then spoke to a guy in the community who wants to remain anonymous. He corroborated the statement made by the kids. He went on further to explain that, they had a community pitch where they trained and played some matches but one day, they were denied the opportunity to use the pitch because the pitch has been given to business men to build stores by elders of the community. According to him, no explanation was given to them. My source told me he had to write a letter to seek the permission of the authorities of the Edwenase sea school before they were given permit to train there.
To my surprise, my investigations revealed that, such incident is not peculiar to the people of Edwenase but it is a national concern and many communities are experiencing such problems.
The following are names of such communities;
- Edwenase Park has been converted into a market
- At Ash Town, two community pitches have been converted into something else. There was one around Saint Louis College, Konadu Yiadom, but has been converted into shops.
- At Manhyia there was another one in front of the Manhyia Palace but it was added to the Manhyia palace expansion
- Another one at Ahinsan Estate; It used to be called Red Park but now it's been used for stores.
- Footballers are sometimes stopped from playing on the Suame State Park because of funeral services.
- The Suame Bus Stop Park has recently been used for the construction of a factory.
The situation is not limited to Kumasi alone. In Accra, there was a football pitch at Nungua barrier but it is now a shopping mall. There was also another one at Taifa Norway too but has been converted into a fuel station for GOIL. The list can go on and on.
Community football has been with us since, and school children, community teams and other members of the community use these community pitches for training and playing football matches. And to a large extent, for any social activities in the community, such as funerals, festivals etc.These activities bring the community together and become grounds for socialization. It also gives an opportunity for young footballers to exhibit their talents for scouts to tap such talents.
However, in recent times such opportunities are being limited by our quest to develop the community to meet certain needs. This has made our local authorities sacrifice our community pitches for the building of stores and other infrastructures owned by individuals at the expense of the joy of the larger community.
We claim we live in a 21st century and as such we understand issues better than our predecessors. Our fore fathers thought it wise to create space in e communities for children and the youth to exhibit their natural talents. I can assure you that most of the players who have made Ghana proud grew up from these communities and played their childhood football on these pitches before they were noticed by club owners and scouts.
The Ashanti Region can boost of the fact that it has been the breeding grounds of abundance of talents. Pitches like Asem Park, Red Park in Ahinsan, State Boys Park, Black Park in Obuasi can boast of great players like John Mensah, Jonathan Mensah, Sammy Kuffour, SulleyMuntari, Stephen Oduro, Akwasi Appiah, Frimpong Manso, OpokuAfriyie, OpokuNti (Lord Zico), just to mention a few. Players who have been part of the success stories of Ghana football.
This new generation are unfortunate to the extent that the so called leaders of this country do not care about football development. Each and every day, you see local authorities giving rich men and women permit to turn our various football pitches into stores to benefit and enrich themselves at the expense of the joy and happiness of the community. I ask myself, is it that we are too greedy and money conscious to the extent that we don't care about the children and the youth.
We complain that things are hard in the country and as such people are not getting jobs to do. Even graduates are not getting employment hence the formation of the Association of unemployed.
By: Rainbow Sackey