Minister defends selection of boxers for C’wealth Games
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, has defended the criteria for the selection of boxers for international competitions, insisting that like many other sporting disciplines, the selection was performance-based.
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Answering a question filed by the NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Klottey Korle, Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, on the criteria for the selection of boxers to represent the country at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the minister explained that the selection process was based on the athletes’ ability to out-perform their peers in pre-organised competitions.
Mr Ussif added that the elements associated with performance in respect of boxers at the Commonwealth Games included their weight class, discipline, medical fitness, experience, exposure, emotional stability among others.
For Ghanaian boxers who competed in the Birmingham Games, Mr Ussif said a number of trial competitions were held from the district level through regions to the national level from which the best boxers were chosen to represent Ghana.
"At each of these levels, the same criteria were applied and many participants were gradually eliminated with the underlying mindset of obtaining the nine slots given by the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC)," he said.
Ghana was represented by a team of nine boxers out of which three of them – Abraham Mensah (silver medal, bantamweight), Joseph Commey (silver, featherweight) and Abdul Wahid Omar (bronze, light-welterweight) won medals.
In another development, the minister told Parliament yesterday that Ghana bagged more than GH¢1 million in gate proceeds from the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying playoff between the Black Stars and their Nigerian counterparts at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi a year ago.
In response to a question by the NDC MP for South Tongu, Kwabena Mensah Woyome, regarding the revenue made by the country from the sale of 42,680 tickets during the March 25, 2022 fixture, Mr Ussif said a total of GH¢1,054,000 was earned at the gates, adding that per the sharing ration, the National Sports Authority received 20 per cent of the proceeds and the remaining 80 per cent went to the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
On how much the Ghana Football Association received, the minister said since government was the sole sponsor of all national teams, proceeds of such matches were always shared between the government, represented by the ministry and the NSA, which manages public stadia.
