Political interference

agreed, one of the selling points was that, athletics, in the national teams, we want the coaches to be there all the time. They might also be with their clubs but there has to be somebody who is there full time to help our athletes, to monitor their performances and progress without any outside interference in the work. We are here today and I am wondering if that is the case or not,” he said.

Whilst the local sports leaders at government level have declared their strong intentions to intervene in sporting administrative issues, should push come to shove, there are growing concerns that the string of events within the local sports could lead and be deemed as political interference in sports by government.

There has been reports in other countries which suggest that governments in some instances have been tempted to exercise tight control over sports or even to monopolize it for their own political benefits.

Sports organizations, on their side, are very careful about maintaining autonomy and these utterances cause serious tensions.

“BNSC is an establishment of parliament and thus means it is a political arm, its board members are appointed by the Minister, except for two ( 2) members. Recently, there has been some comments from some BNSC board members suggesting that they want to choose their own preferred individuals from National Sport

Associations ( NSA’s) to work with. The sentiments show that they undermine the decisions of the affiliates to elect people into power and lead the office, that alone shows that our sport is in a precarious position,” BG Sport informant reported.

The source further revealed that should the situation continue to escalate, the NSA’s may report the matter to their respective world governing bodies which will likely see the concerned sporting codes suspended from global and continental competitions.

Last week, Serufho reported that at least three ( 3) sporting codes were set to appear before the BNSC disciplinary committee for hearings over accusations of bringing sport into disrepute.