“Astroturfs are not good for Ghana” – Solomon Nkansah

By Kojo Brace On May 25, 2020

Former National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has revealed that the party will turn all astroturfs being developed throughout the country by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) into hockey pitches. In their places, he says the NDC will build proper, full-fledged football pitches across the country.

“And for that matter, we will, in future, relegate those ones to hockey pitches, and provide proper football pitches,” he said on Sky Power FM over the weekend.

He says the NPP are building these astroturfs with no background research work into the viability of them to help develop the several budding talents in football the country is blessed with.

Speaking on the News Review, a news analysis program on Skyy Power FM, this Sunday, May 24, 2020, the political colossus of the NDC said the party commissioned some football and medical experts to look at the prospects of astroturfs, and the team has concluded that they are not good for developing football talents in Ghana due to the several challenges they pose to these talents.

“The NDC has commissioned some sports experts into the prospects of astroturf and its medical challenges, and on the prospects of nurturing footballers in the country. We have got to the conclusion that 80% of the astroturfs are not good for the football fraternity,” Solomon Nkansah revealed.

According to him, astroturfs can have very negative impacts on the health of the youth who patronizes them and therefore must not be encouraged in Ghana. Explaining his point further, Mr. Nkansah, who is a former Western Region Organiser of the NDC, stated that their research so far has proven that injuries sustained on those turfs are too severe, and that will be a danger to the many budding talents who will use those turfs.

“When you get injured on an astroturf, its severity is very, very high. Due to its synthetic nature, it is difficult when it rains or when it becomes somehow wet, which can be very dangerous for playing,” he stated.

Solomon Nkansah said “We are not doing this because we are NDC, but we are doing it for the medical and the overall prospects for the football-loving youth.”