Technical advisor and referee of Tennis Professionals Ghana (TPG) Abubakar-Laya has called on government and cooperate institutions to come on board and sponsor TPG tournaments and other activities undertaken by the association.
According to him, sponsorship has been a debacle for his outfit over the years stalling their progress hence the need for individuals who have interest in the sport to support them financially to aid in the organization of more tournaments to help unearth talent for the country.
He revealed that some non-governmental organizations are sponsoring them to organize tournaments and other activities but conceded that more funding is required to enable his outfit function properly.
In an exclusive interview with Univers Sports on the sports Express show, Mr. Yakubu made an appeal to the general public and government to come to their aid and provide them with financial assistance.
“For a very long time no financial support from government and that’s why I mentioned a lot of NGO’s who are into it. So’Yes’ no sponsorship and no financial support it is individuals and organizations who have taken it upon themselves to help the situation as it stands now, that is why tennis foundation Ghana has now taken it upon themselves and is now organizing an international ITF tennis tournament since 2018 and this year they will be hosting eight weeks ITF tournament involving players coming from all over the world. So we need sponsorship that is the main challenge. We want to appeal to cooperate institutions and individuals who are really interested to partner TPG and come on board so together we get tennis back to where we all desire it to be” Mr. Yakubu told Univers Sports.
He further admonished the educational sector to ensure tennis in school initiative functions properly and also called on cooperate organizations to support the initiative.
” If you observe you will realize that the young ones are actually now penetrating with some of them getting to the quarter finals and even into the semi finals some of them made it to that stage. Samuel Antwi had it tough with one of the young ones which is Abubakar in the semis so the tournament has actually improved because the young ones joined last year. With time it tells us that tennis has a good future because the young ones are making in roads into the national ranking so the future is good for Ghana tennis. When it comes to tennis in schools our educational system the way it has been structured does not favor sports in general.
“At the basic level we have tennis in school initiative which is being carried out by PM Sports, a non-governmental organization they are in basic schools trying to catch them young. So we’ve seen some inroads in Junior tennis tournament other non-governmental organizations like Tennis Foundation Ghana, Hope Tennis Performance and some few NGO’s who are trying to grow tennis in Ghana” the technical advisor of TPG told to Univers Sports.
