Sports Corruption in Ghana Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Sports Corruption in Ghana - Essay Example The 2010 report of the World Bank regarding corruption in Ghana claimed that as many as 95 percent of the total health resources in the country end up going in the hands of the private individuals. In addition, the public only benefits from only 5 percent of the total spending of the government on the health sector (National Development Planning Commission (Ghana) & International Monetary Fund, pp. 14-19). The people of the country are suffering greatly due to the poor living standards and austerity measures in the country but they fail to realize that they are sitting on mineral resources of gold, oil, timber, diamond, bauxite, manganese, sliver, limestone, and others worth trillions of dollars (Rosner & Shropshire, pp. 88-89). In short, Ghana is one of those countries in Africa which have great potential due to the location, history and demographics, however, they country is far from realizing its potential due to the rising corruption in the country. It was on September 29, 2011 t hat Ghana Anti Corruption Coalition admitted the fact that Sports Corruption is eating away the credibility of Ghana football and if serious actions are not taken in the near future then the officials may be left with nothing to save (Nicholls, Daniel, Bacarese & Hatchard, pp. 342-345). The following few lines will attempt to lay down a framework by discussing the importance of sports in everyday life and the theoretical impact of corruption on sports. The damage which corruption does to the sport, its dignity, and perception is the most ruthless out of all (Levy & Wong, 359-362). Men and Women turn to sports so that they could seek escape from the tiring and mechanistic day-to-day activities. Sports are an alternative to... The paper tells that sports serve an important purpose of inducing and inhabiting healthy lifestyles in the hearts and minds of the children and the adults. Educational institutions, parents, experts, researchers and academicians and others encourage sports for students because it helps them steer the children away from unhealthy activities. The time available to students can be classified into two categories, one that is spent on healthy and productive activities, and other being the one spent on unhealthy and nonproductive activities. Nonproductive activities would include watching TV, sitting idle, excessive eating, excessive internet browsing, chatting and cell phone use, and use of drugs, parties, and others. However, productive use of the leisure time includes activities such as completing the homework, studying, engaging in sports, physical exercises, workouts and others. Research indicate that when children engage in sports, they are crowding out the possible time that could have been allocated to unhealthy leisure time activities and at the same time, they are getting physical and mental exercise which is always crucial to the performance of the mind and the body. The problem occurs when talented, confident, and hardworking players do not get a chance to be the part of the national teams or they fail to get exposure that they think they deserve. Players work extremely hard throughout their life to represent their country, city of region in sports tournaments. Usually they end up comprising their studies, friendships, families and others in order to focus more on their sports career.