Sports News of Thursday, July 25, 2024
Source: ghanaguardian.com
Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustafa Usif
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Usif, has taken a firm stand to clarify that his ministry was not involved in securing visas for a team falsely claiming to be Ghana’s Paralympic team for a marathon race in Oslo, Norway.
He explained that, normally, clubs inform the Ministry of Sports through the body they belong to, either the Olympic or Paralympic Committee, and through the National Sports Authority about upcoming events.
He stressed that his ministry must have been informed of the organization of the marathon and that the team did not travel on behalf of Ghana.
“In this case of Norway, no request was made to the Ghana Paralympic Committee nor the National Sports Authority to be forwarded to the Ministry of Youth and Sports. We were unaware of any facts and the team that went did not represent the Ghana Paralympic Team as widely reported,” he said. during a press conference on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
The Minister outlined the usual visa application process for athletes, noting that the Ministry of Sports works with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to secure visas and does not send letters directly to embassies. “Normally, we don’t issue letters to embassies, we write to the Foreign Office to handle it on our behalf. For the record, this made-up Paralympic team did not represent our country.”
The Minister expressed his shock and dismay when the scandal was revealed following a statement by National Security which revealed that an 11-strong Paralympic team had absconded after arriving in Norway.
The statement said one member was arrested by Norwegian authorities while traveling in Sweden and another died after collapsing, leaving nine members missing. This incident tarnished the reputation of our Paralympic Committee and endangered the lives of those individuals whose images were wrongly published in the media.