New Sports law in the offing …to sanitize sports administration

New Sports law in the offing

…to sanitize sports administration

Byy Mohammed Awal
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah has revealed that as part of efforts to sanitize sports administration in the country, the ministry has initiated a move to enact a new National Sports Bill. If passed by Parliament, the new bill would replace the obsolete 1974 Sports Act (SMCD 54).

Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah

He said: "Sports administration in this country has witnessed a lot of controversies and challenges, primarily due to the absence of a comprehensive National Sports law." Mr. Afriyie-Ankrah made this disclosure in Accra yesterday, during a meet the press encounter.

The new law, he further stated, would be designed in such a way that would facilitate corporate sponsorship and would eventually help reduce “the heavy reliance on government for funding of sports activities.”

The law, he added, if passed by Parliament, would introduce and run sports lotteries, encourage the sourcing of sponsorship arrangements by sports administrators.

Anti-doping

 Mr. Afriyie Ankrah said the Ministry would establish a National Anti-doping office in the country, which would be housed at the Accra sports stadium.

The setting up of the agency, he explained, was part of efforts to promote “fair play” in sports in the country, and that it was also aimed at ensuring compliance to the world’s anti-doping code.

The initiative, he disclosed, would be rolled out in line with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) International Convention against Anti-doping in sports, with support from the World Anti-doping Agency.

The mandate of the anti-doping agency, he noted, would be to set up Anti-doping tribunal that would prosecute doping related cases.

It would also ensure the dissemination of the World Anti-doping agency code to all sports stakeholders in the country