Vice President Bawumia with Hasaacas Ladies
Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia has given indication that the government is committed to developing women football in the country. According to the Vice-President, the government has shown this commitment by a support package of GHC 500 monthly allowance it gave to female athletes in the country, including professional footballers under the Youth Employment Agency during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Vice-President recently gave $10,000 to Hasaacas Ladies, when the team qualified to play in the CAF Women’s Champions League Zone B tournament held in Cote d’Ivoire.
He further presented GHC50, 000 to the team for winning the CAF Zone B trophy, and further promised to support not only Hasaacas Ladies, but women’s sports, including soccer.
Women football
It is on record that less attention has over the years been given to women football, and particularly, women sports in the country. While the male senior national team and other male national teams always have countless resources at their disposal, the women are always left out. On several occasions, female contingents that represent Ghana at various tournament have had to cry for several months, if not years, before their bonuses are paid.
This is not withstanding the fact that the country’s female senior national team, the Black Queens, was the first to qualify for a world cup tournament.
In the local scene, while the male league is often easy to attract sponsorship, the female league struggles and often depends on resources from the team owners to survive.
Meanwhile, since 2005 that Accra Hearts of Oak won a continental cup for all the male teams in Ghana, it is Hasaacas Ladies that have brought another continental trophy at the club level to the country.
Lesser-known sports
The least said about lesser-known sports such as boxing, athletics, among others, the better. Yet, it is these same sports that keep lifting high the flag of Ghana. Since the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, the male football teams have been struggling to qualify to represent the country at the most prestigious Olympics tournament. Yet, the lesser-known sports keep bringing glory to the country by qualifying to represent the country.
The country’s only Olympic medal won since Barcelona 1992, some 29 years ago, is a boxing medal won by Samuel Takyi in the just ended Tokyo Olympics.
Thus, while we keep giving much attention to male football in the country, it is women football and lesser-known sports that keep giving us glories in medals and trophies.
That is why we appreciate the current government for the support it gave to female athletes in the country, including professional footballers. But that is also why we are calling on the government, corporate Ghana and other stakeholders to do more by focusing more on lesser-known sports and women football in the country.
Accra Hearts of Oak will be representing Ghana in the CAF Champions league. At the same time, Hasaacas Ladies have qualified to compete in the finals of the CAF Women’s Champions League tournament in Egypt in November. We are calling on all stakeholders to give same attention to Hasaacas Ladies as shall be given to Hearts of Oak.
Our 4X100 team and other athletes at the Tokyo Olympics set new national records. About 75 percent of the athletes that represented Ghana at the Olympics were less than 25years. This presents to us a youthful and energetic team that can be prepared well to achieve laurels. As we prepare for Paris 2024, the All-African Games and the Commonwealth Games, we need to appreciate the fact that it is the attention we give to the lesser known sports and women football that will determine whether we are going to compete and win glories or whether we are just going to participate.
