The General Secretary of the Ghana Tennis Federation, Henry Yao Boni, is calling on the Ministry of Sports and Recreation to give equal attention to other sporting disciplines just as football.
His comments follow a communiqué released by the federation warning that Ghana risks disqualification from the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup if the country fails to participate in this year’s qualifiers scheduled for Nairobi in June and Gaborone in July.
Speaking on Sports Night on Radio Univers, Henry Boni stressed that all sports are equally important and deserve support.
He revealed that funding remains the federation’s biggest challenge, forcing them to rely heavily on grants from the International Tennis Federation and support from private individuals to finance Ghana’s participation in international competitions.
“The ITF participation grant that comes and we manage prudently has been our source of funding. The state has been absent for a very long time. Earlier this year, when the federation realised that the apparel the team uses to represent Ghana had become old and needed replacement, we had to do crowdfunding within the tennis community to raise money to sew Ghana-branded apparel for our players,” he stated.
Henry Boni further explained that private support alone cannot sustain the development of the sport, stressing that government intervention is necessary to provide quality equipment and logistics for athletes representing the country.
He also called for a more balanced distribution of sports funding, insisting that several federations continue to struggle despite their contribution to national development.
“Sports budgets should not only be football. There are over thirty federations under the sports fraternity and each of them has a role to play in society. We are optimistic that those at the helm of affairs will do what is needful,” he added.
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Story by Erica Odeenyin Odoom | univers.ug.edu.gh
