The Greater Accra region emerged the overall winner of the 2017 National Sports Festival but the instead of rejoicing the regional sports director of the region – Mr.Kpeglo Edmund – is lamenting the horrible quality of feeding the Male athletes were given during the 6-day event held in Kumasi.
The female athletes from the 10 regions who were camped at the St.Louis Senior High School however have not complained about feeding issues.
“The head office (National Sports Authorithy – NSA) were aware of our few problems. The caterers didn’t provide us with the best food at all. The caterers here (KNUST SHS) cooked very bad food for the our athletes. My athletes complained to me and I came over myself to inspect the food and the truth of the matter is that the food was very very bad. They were sometimes fed with slices of yam with garden eggs stew for lunch and also rice balls with groundnut soup but I myself if you gave me that food I wouldn’t eat. It was horrible. This is not the fault of the NSA but I blame the caterers here. Next time the NSA must hire better ones. We did complain to the NSA about the insipid food given to my athletes but nothing changed. ” Mr Kpeglo lamented speaking to Kumasi-based Metro FM on Friday.
“I MYSELF IF YOU GAVE ME THAT FOOD I WOULDN’T EAT” KPEGLO EDMUND – GREATER ACCRA SPORTS DIRECTOR.
The food complaints are not only emanating from the Greater Accra as athletes from other regions like Brong Ahafo region, Central region, Northern region have also expressed their unhappiness regarding the quality of feeding provided and these series of issues threaten to overshadow the proper competition itself.
“Everything was badly organized. The toilets rolls were not even given out to us. Look at the back of that Pick Up – that is packs of toilet trolls and other toiletries that our sports director is taking home meanwhile when we ask for them he told us there are no more toiletries left. The food we were given here is not even the best” Febiri Prince of Team Brong Ahafo told Metro FM reporters Gariba Raubil and Emmanuel Essel Bentum.
“I regret coming to this sports festival. I was there in 2011 when the sports festival was organized at Legon and we saw how it was done but this one was hastily done and when you do that you wouldn’t have the best of competitions. We were just assembled for one day on Wednesday and then on Thursday we came to Kumasi. So how can you come to competition like this without any preparation? This means they wanted us to come and compete just any how. I didn’t eat the food given to us here. I fed myself outside.” another Tennis player from Team Central Region Mohammed Amin moaned.
“The idea was good but it appeared like they wanted to organize the event no matter what. So issues with accommodation, feeding and transportation was not the best. Sometimes I have the charter a taxi to carry my athletes to compete at Paa Joe Park. The food is also horrible and again with our own pocket money we have had to go outside to buy better food ” Captain of the Team Greater Accra Isaac Boadum said.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Youth and Sports provided a seed money of 50 000 USD to the NSA to organize this year’s National Sports festival which had not been held since 2011.
Among the confirmed sponsors that came on board to associate with the sports event were Ghana Commercial Bank, Stanbic Bank, Ghana Cocoa Board, Ferro Moblie, National Lottery Authority,Ghana National Petroleum Corporation and many others.
Follow the writer of this story Gariba Raubil on twitter @GRAUBIL
