13th All-Africa Games postponed to 2024 |23 February 2023
The 13th All-Africa Games slated for August 4-19 this year have been postponed to 2024 after an agreement between the competition’s major stakeholders.
Ghana’s efforts to host the Games has been hampered due to an impasse over marketing rights involving the African Union (AU), Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (Anoca) and the Association of African Sports Confederations (AASC) who are the competition’s major stakeholders.
The impasse was resolved on February 19 in Addis Abba, Ethiopia and was facilitated by the President of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo.
However, aside these issues Ghana has been struggling to complete the facilities required to host the games. The main arena for the games which is situated at Borteyman is well behind schedule.
The construction of the University of Ghana stadium faces a similar situation.
Speaking at the local organising committee (LOC) media engagement at the Accra Sports stadium the chairman of the committee, Dr Kwaku Ofosu-Asare, said the games will still be called ‘Accra 2023’ as planned initially.
According to reports, in December 2022, Ghanaian-based construction company Consar was told by parliament to complete the facilities planned for the Games. This included finishing the modernisation of the University of Ghana Stadium, which was the centerpiece of the Games and originally due to be handed over by the end of 2022. The venue, also known as the Legon Stadium, was completed in February, as hoped.
Plans to build a new stadium for the event were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Funds were also released to complete the construction of the Borteyman Sports Complex, which was expected to host up to 11 sports during the African Games. Among the sports the complex was set to stage were aquatics, football, judo, taekwondo, weightlifting, and tennis.
The rescheduled event has not been given specific dates yet
New disciplines in the competition are expected to include arms wrestling and rugby.
Accra, Kumasi, and Cape Coast are expected to be the three cities to host the competition.
Compiled by Gerard Govinden