GIJ to join GUSA games soon

The Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) would soon join the Ghana University Sports Association (GUSA) and participate in the GUSA games.

The sports commissioner of GIJ, Mr. Cyrus Afful confirmed this in an interview at Burma Camp. Speaking in an interview, Mr. Afful said that the failure of the institute to participate in the GUSA games is its inability to secure the requisite facilities.

“There is a basic requirement which is to secure a standard pitch. A standard pitch should have a bench, should be more than average in terms of quality. Am talking about some good grass, well lined with flags and then at least it should be a comfortable place to play.” He noted.

According to him, GIJ lacks all these facilities which would enable them to participate in the GUSA games.

He also stated that as a result of this, the GIJ sports executive committee members are negotiating with Osu PRESEC School for their pitch as their home grounds.

“We are still working on it. We are negotiating with Osu PRESEC School where we had our recent games which had a floodlight and some to show. So we will contact management and then see how far we can go; as in coming to agreement with Osu PRRESEC; so that we register their pitch as our home pitch and the we will look at migrating to the GUSA games.” He emphasized.

Mr. Afful also spoke on some of the challenges the commission is facing in helping develop GIJ sports. He said there are several setbacks in GIJ sports but the major setback is lack of funding.

“GIJ sport is facing several setbacks. First of all, the students’ inclination to sport is a little bit problematic; as the school is geared towards academic theories and then sport has not been given the necessary attention. But the major challenge apart from students’ inclination to sport is lack of funding.” He stated.

Finally, Mr. Afful pointed out the plans of the executives to the institute for semester. According to him, they are planning to play Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) next year and also see how best they can participate competitively in the all inter universities games which will be hosted by Maritime University in 2016.

GIJ has not been participating in the GUSA games since its establishment in 1959 by the first president of the Republic of Ghana Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.