Dr Nsiah Asare opens up on why gov’t lifted the ban on football

Dr Nsiah Asare, the Advisor to the President on Health matters has opened up on the reasons why the Hu government of Ghana lifted the ban on contact sports.

The President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo in his 17th Address to the Nation on measures taken to halt the spread of COVID-19 pandemic lifted the ban on contact sports.

Football activities were frozen in mid-March due to the widespread of the deadly disease. The President initially l lifted the ban on non-contact sports to the dismay of football fans.

Speaking to Hello FM, Dr Nsiah Asare explained that several factors were considered before arriving at the decision to bring back football.

“The President wants us to go back slowly to the normal state. We have been easing the restrictions strategically in order not to experience any bad thing.

“Football is all that the football people have got, that’s their work so they cannot camp players and feed them without working for them. You know worldwide people are playing too. In some countries, the supporters are allowed into the stadiums and vice-versa. We lifted the ban on churches and nothing happened as well.

“Students were going to school and commercial vehicles were loading to full capacity.

“We thought about what could be done to help that running football to start the game since that’s their source of living and we knew about some international games as well. We allowed the national team’s involved to start training after testing and nothing happened.

“But they were to made aware that they will strictly adhere to all the protocols.

“With regard to the supporters going to the various stadia, we realise that the clubs will suffer a lot if they are to play in empty stadiums so we agreed to the social distancing arrangement.

“So we considered all those factors and we were convinced that the ban on football should be lifted, ” he concluded.