Dr. Austin Wontepaga Luguterah, Director of the University of Ghana Sports and Wellness Directorate, has exposed a funding anomaly, revealing that the directorate does not directly receive revenue from stadium rentals, with the actual beneficiary remaining unknown.
Toward the end of this year, the University of Ghana Sports Stadium became the temporary home ground for three Ghana Premier League teams – Hearts of Oak, Accra Lions, and Legon Cities – following the Accra Sports Stadium’s closure for renovations.
The 10,000 capacity stadium which is located on the University of Ghana campus recently hosted the 2024 WAFU Zone B U-17 tournament, which was staged in Accra from May 15-29, 2024.
Additionally, the stadium played host to two major domestic cup finals, featuring both men’s and women’s competitions, including the MTN FA Cup and the Malta Guinness Women’s Final.
The stadium, commissioned on March 2, 2024, also proved its worth by successfully hosting two matches of the Africa Games Men’s Football tournament held in Accra.
Speaking during a meeting between Universports and the UG Sports Directorate, the senior Lecturer of Physical Education and Sports at the department of Physical Education and Sport Studies, revealed that his outfit is in the dark about the destination of proceeds generated from the stadium.
“How much they charge them?.My people are here, we don’t know who takes the money and who doesn’t take the money, we can’t tell sometimes we argue with them when they come to put barricade there to block our people from entering. – he said.
Also, Dr. Luguterah shared a frustrating experience where a Ghana Premier League team removed his pitch panels from the stadium just as a match was about to begin, prompting a series of back-and-forth exchanges.”
Our people have to sometimes do “takashi” before they can enter the office, to the extent that we made a pitch panel there with the university of Ghana Sports and Wellness Directorate there and a league that was not organized by us was forcing us to pull ours down so that they use their own and the person who is in charge was virtually supporting them
It blows my mind that you come to my house and you tell me that I should remove my house number because you want to enter I do not agree to that and I told the person that it the person is ignorant, he can go to all the world stadiums there are certain panels you don’t touch; it comes with the facility when you come to rent it. Take it or leave it” – he added.
“We are not competing with anybody, University of Ghana is a huge brand on its own”- he concluded.
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Story by Asack Pius|univers.ug.edu.gh
