Ladies and gentlemen, the 2021 AFCON will go down in Ghana’s history as one of the worst performance of the Ghana Black Stars.
In my opinion, many factors have led us to this abysmal performance. Though many have called for the sacking of the head coach, his sacking is just a fraction of the solution to the numerous challenges we face as a country.

For me, it’s about time we assess the rate of development of community sports centers and their contributions to the development of the game.

The construction of community sports and fitness venues across the length and breath of the country will present us an opportunity to evaluate the pattern of “ urbanization-suburbanization-reurbanization ”.

Currently, the center of construction has always been in the urban area and first moved towards the south and then towards the north.

Government investment is the main source of funds for the construction of venues, and social investment has been steadily growing. The number and area of multiple types of venues has increased significantly around the urban and especially the southern sectors. The overall service coverage radius of community sports and fitness venues has been significantly increased mostly through Individuals and corporate organizations thus the regional equality between the core and peripheral areas has been obviously marginalized. The overall per capita service location entropy has been significantly also marginalized. The “high-low ” 2 way circle spatial structure continues to exist(Thus, city to rural areas) but the scope of the high-value areas(cities/urban areas ) has expanded markedly. There appear to be a significant optimization of social performance from the urban areas hence social performance of the community sports and fitness venues in urban areas is better than that in suburban areas, but the optimization of social performance in suburban areas is greater than that in urban areas.

I will like to suggest that, central government, individuals and corporate organizations to begin to take deliberate attempts to bridge the gap in the development of community sports centers in and around the northern sectors of Ghana. This move should not be later but now.
I pray we get there ASAP!!!

By: Coach and Sports Psychologists Sulemani Rufai Agbonor