Accra Stadium renovation to start June
Ghana's bid to host the 2018 African Women's Championship is likely to be derailed at the 11th hour by the poor state of the pitch at the Accra Sports Stadium.
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However, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Isaac Asiamah, has given an assurance that renovation works on various portions of the stadium, including regrassing of the playing field, will commence in June, this year.
The minister told the media after a tour of the stadium yesterday that his outfit was studying estimates for the works and that it would be ready for next year’s continental championship which kicks off between November 17-December 1, 2018.
During the minister’s tour of the facility, which was reconstructed 10 years ago for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, the CEO of Green Grass Technologies, Frank Boahene, revealed that the current state of the pitch would fail any credible inspection by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
Mr Boahene, who was in charge of maintaining the pitch between 2007 and February 2014, said the entire pitch must be re-grassed if it is to meet the grade when the CAF Technical Committee arrives to inspect it ahead of the championship.
Mr Boahene said the 10-year-old pitch had "expired" and added that it exposed players to ankle, hamstring and knee injuries because of its shallow root depth and undulating nature.
"This pitch is not fit for the purpose," Mr Boahene said, in response to a question by Mr Asiamah about the suitability of the pitch for the continental tournament.
"As you can see it comes off very easily and could cause many ankle injuries although it looks green".
In an interview on the sidelines of the tour of the stadium, Mr Boahen said he arrived at the conclusion that the surface comprised of more weeds than grass in its current state after an assessment.
"Ideally, a pitch must be re-grassed after every year or at most every five years.
"My contract to maintain the pitch ended in February 2014 and since then staff of the National Sports Authority have been in charge.
"Right now it is overrun with weeds, a pitch must be regrassed in a maximum of five years but this has been here for 10 years".
The minister later pledged that renovation works would begin in a few months time in readiness for the 2018 African Women’s Championship.
“By June, we shall start renovating the sports stadia and critical areas will be addressed, especially those that need urgent attention.
"We have received some estimates from AESL and we are still going over the figures and this time maintenance is going to be our key priority," he added.