The Accra Sports Stadium will not be demolished despite ongoing engineering problems, Acting Director General of the National Sports Authority (NSA) Prof. Emmanuel Osei Sarpong has said.
Prof. Osei Sarpong said the facility’s difficulties were being examined and addressed, with the aim of restoring it to the best possible condition.
His comments follow concerns about the stadium’s current state, including a warning from former NSA Board Chairman Prof. Fred Awaah, who described the venue as a “death trap”.
Prof. Awaah also said the stadium would have been demolished if the authority had been able to proceed with its preferred option.
However, Prof. Osei Sarpong said demolishing the existing structure and constructing a completely new stadium would not be the best immediate solution.
“For me, Accra Sports Stadium is a very good place. We have an engineering problem, and so that is one of the things we are looking at, but we cannot fix everything at a go. We will explore the options to determine whether renovation or building a new stadium would be the best solution,” he said.
He added: “In the interim, we cannot break Accra Sports Stadium down. So we need to look at the gaps one after the other and solve them gradually until we are sure the majority of the gaps are.”
The NSA is therefore assessing the stadium’s problems individually rather than pursuing an immediate demolition.
The Accra Sports Stadium hosted Ghana’s 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against Gambia last month.
It is also expected to stage Ghana’s doubleheader against Somalia next month.
