Sports Corruption in Ghana - Essay Example

? Sports Corruption in Ghana Proposal Republic of Ghana, despite being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, is facing a list of problems. Ethnic violence, political unrest, unemployment, inflation, depreciation of currency, water shortage, sanitation problems, poor educational structure, poor infrastructure, judicial crisis, poverty, over dependence on agriculture, insufficient health facilities, HIV aids and others. However, there is one particular problem, which has been eating away the country, its potential and performance over the past decades is the rising corruption in the country (Thornton, pp. 9-11; National Development Planning Commission (Ghana) & International Monetary Fund, pp. 14-19). From the education sector to health sector, from judiciary to the public sector organizations, from construction to political parties and others, corruption is becoming a part of the Ghanaian culture. Unfortunately, recent scandals and news indicate that corruption is also strengthening its roots in the sports and this paper is an attempt to explore the same and its possible impacts. The paper will revolve around the following research question. What have been and what are going to be impacts of the rising sports corruption in Ghana? The paper will make an attempt to find tentative answers to the following research questions. To understand the problem of corruption in Ghana, its background and current situation To explore the long term and short term affects of sports corruption in Ghana To explore the economic and noneconomic benefits or losses of sports corruption in Ghana The problem of corruption in many African countries is a serious one and that includes Ghana as well. Due to the rising corruption in Ghana, the policy makers of the country had to change the currency twice in the past four decades. Over the years, the value of Ghana’s cedi has been decreasing due to the black marketing of the money and corruption, which goes on to give rise to inflation. Currently, inflation stands at over 10 percent in the country (Levy & Wong, 359-362). Despite the fact that this figure is less than that of many other African countries but due to rising corruption, poor governance, and inflation, the country is not able to realize its potential. 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 that 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 other such activities like sex, drugs, partying, drinking and others. However, sports, unlike the above-mentioned activities, do not entail any emotional stress, hangovers, stress, or mental complications (Morgan, pp. 85). In fact, it acts as a refreshing escape from the boring lives and boosts the physical and mental health of people. People find everything in sports that they need. From ‘complications to liberty’, from ‘competition to toughness’, from ‘exercise to purity’, from ‘show of strength to show of intelligence’, sports allow people to highlight their personalities (Nicholls, Daniel, Bacarese & Hatchard, pp. 342-345). Furthermore, people like watching and playing sports because of the freedom and equality that sports allow people to recreate their childhood with only thing, which keeps them away from realizing their potential and creativity are the rules, which they accept before starting the game and which are equal for everyone. However, this great experience loses its value and passion with corruption (Nicholls, Daniel, Bacarese & Hatchard, pp. 342-345). Most parts of this paper are dedicated towards highlighting the fact that how corruption ends up killing the sports and its players. Corruption takes away the very essence of sports and the reason why people like, love, and engage sports. Most of the spectators that follow sports and cheer loudly for their athletes and teams are the ones who have played those sports in their childhood and the sight of the same helps them in refreshing their innocence as a child, their old memories, and freedom (Thornton, pp. 9-11). As mentioned earlier, people love sports because, at least towards the start of game, ever opponent is equal, unlike the real life, which has a rocky road and uneven playing field, and the best man always wins. However, with corruption, people find the very same elements in sports from which they were trying to escape thus decreasing their interest and hurting the integrity of the sport along with the players (Rosner & Shropshire, pp. 88-89; Morgan, pp. 85). Discussion Important here is to understand the fact that sports serves 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 (Giulianotti, pp. 30-32). 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 (Rosner & Shropshire, pp. 88-89). 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. It is highly likely that when that when these talented and hardworking boys find out that the rich and powerful players have taken their place courtesy to the bribes that they have provided to the officials. This is nothing less than heartbreaking for other who put in their lives into sports just to find out that it is not their hard work but their money, power and position, which could lead them to the top. Important here to note is that this is not the story of a few dozen but of thousands of young boys who end up disillusioned and disappointed from the system. In particular, they learn an important lesson that in order to live, survive and make it to the top, they will have to increase their stake in the ongoing corruption (Nafziger & Ross, pp. 63-64). Sports are there to promote sophistication, team spirit, fair play, and ethics in the society. However, if the very same sports start strengthening the roots of corruption in the society then the culture is definitely doomed. Sports have the capability to bring people from different races, colors, religions, nationalities, ethnicities, casts, creeds and backgrounds, together on one forum and promote unity and a sense of togetherness (Giulianotti, pp. 30-32). People from all occupations take interest in sports and when there are strong sources telling that these sports are filled with corruption, the people lose their interest. The unity gets shattered; children learn the wrong lessons from their heroes and the people from other countries and societies see the sports corruption as the manifestation of the practices and beliefs in that entire culture (Nicholls, Daniel, Bacarese & Hatchard, pp. 342-345). Experts believe that corruption in sports is amongst the last levels or heights of corruption. If corruption and unfair play becomes prevalent in sports and the masses are quiet about the same that is the indication that it is already prevalent in almost all occupations in that society. Consider the example of Pakistan cricket before when consider Ghanaian football. Recently, three cricketers from Pakistan Cricket, former captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Muhammad Asif and Muhammad Amir (Ferranti, pp. 25-28) received prison sentences of 30, 12 and 6 months respectively from a court in London on the charges of spot fixing. The trio was caught during the test match in England where they bowled pre determined no balls during the match. The country and its cricket have suffered a lot due to these spot fixing charges and the entire cricket system of the country is now being questioned. Cricketers and officials admit that corruption is present at every level of Pakistan cricket and it will take years before corruption could be eliminated from the system. The same is the case with the entire Pakistan (Ferranti, pp. 25-28). The country has thousands of bogus schools, which do not even exist but teachers and officials continue to take salaries, government hospitals are worse than morgues, where right from the President to the governors, from the Prime Minister to the Provincial Ministers, everyone has dozens of corruptions cases and involvement in corruption scandals. The country ranks on the 143 position in the Corruptions perceptions index and that explains why corruption has become a part of the lives of Pakistani people and it appears as if they are not bothered by it anymore (Nafziger & Ross, pp. 63-64). The reason to present the example of Pakistan was that it presents a similar situation as of Ghana. Decades ago, Ghana took great pride in their culture, which condemned any sort of corruption or unfairness. Anyone who was found in misbalancing the playing field did not only lose his or her respect from the part of friends but also from the family. The society created virtual systems and mechanisms, which ensured that children learned to work as hard as possible to reach to success and that there, were no shortcuts to success. However, over the years, corruption, which has been flowing from the top, from the political parties and public sector organizations is spreading like an epidemic in the country (Simon, pp. 55). The low living standards, inflation, lack of opportunities and others are supporting the growth of corruption in the country. The education sector, health sector, water and sanitation sector, monetary market, financial markets and others have already been infected with the epidemic and it appears that its effects are irreversible, at least in the next few years. Corruption in football and other sports in Ghana is the epitome of corruption in Ghana and if in the next few years, the officials in Ghana fail to solve the problem then corruption would become as acceptable as any other tradition in the country (Gocking, pp. 106-107). Children, who see these sports with the most enthusiasm will learn all the wrong lesson and who knows that this lesson of this low level sports corruption may open doors for bigger crimes for the upcoming generation. They will learn the dangerous lesson of “means justify the ends” and morality is all about “maximizing one’s own long term interests. If this continues then it will end up breeding a society in Ghana which will follow the principle of “one against all”. In short, if this deadly practice continues then it might end up killing the entire society (Yost, pp. 284-286). Then again, there are some obvious disadvantages and inherent losses of allowing corruption to prevail in the Ghanaian sporting teams. Quite understandably, teams are less likely to succeed with corruption because when the powerful make their way into the team with the help of their power and influence, then it is highly likely that they could not have done the same under normal circumstances (Simon, pp. 55). This is one of the most important reasons behind the dismissal performance of Ghanaian and other African teams in the major sporting events. Without any doubts, Africa has huge talent when it comes to various sports played on international levels but corruption along with the lack of resources ends up putting the African teams at the end of lists of teams ranked according to their performance (Ferranti, pp. 25-28). The champions from South America and Europe have spent thousands of dollars and time in order to ensure that they could put a lid on corruption. The argument here is that this corruption is limiting Ghana to realize its full performance in sports (Nafziger & Ross, pp. 63-64). Let us say that Ghana has the potential of winning the FIFA world cup for instance and the induction of less talented along with a few factors is the few reasons, which are separating the country from FIFA world cup. If Ghana ends up winning the FIFA World cup or even if it gives an exciting performance, it will unleash a series of short term and long term economic and noneconomic benefits for the country and its people. First, it will become a series contender for hosting important football events and other teams would want the Ghanaian team to visit their country, or even better, they will end up coming to Ghana (Simon, pp. 55). This will lead to great investments in the country for the same purposes. Basic economics dictates huge investments, such as the ones required for hosting international football events, leads to high levels of foreign direct investment, job opportunities, gives boost to incomes of the local people, and increases the GDP of the country. In short, it creates an upwards spiral of growth since more investment leads to more incomes and more income leads to greater investments (National Development Planning Commission (Ghana) & International Monetary Fund, pp. 14-19). Second, the energy and enthusiasm that performing well at international sporting events creates in the public leads to higher spending as well. For example, children and adults prefer wearing attires, perfumes and other objects endorsed by the well perfuming athletes. During the seasons of sports and especially for quite some while if the local team performs well, the sales of anything even remotely related to those sports shoots like rising star (Levy & Wong, 359-362). Any investment made in selling stuff related to sports leads to huge returns and when people take advantage of the same thus strengthening the economy. This attracts investments from the local and foreign people, creates jobs for people, and raises their income level. On the other hand, the social benefit of winning a major sports event of even performing well at the same includes the creation of a wave of joy, happiness, and pleasure amongst the pleasure. At least for the next few days, people will forget about the problems and issues and will take great joy and pride in the performance of their team (Ferranti, pp. 25-28). Third, when teams perform well, the immediate beneficiaries are the players who not only get the fame and recognition but heavy and fat paychecks as well. Furthermore, they get a chance to play for associations and clubs of other countries thus allowing them to earn more and more money. However, great players never forget their roots. In fact, many of these players usually come forward to help and support their local communities from where they emerged. They believe that it is their duty to “give back” to their people and communities to whom they owe their success and talent. Quite understandably, in the process of giving back, they end up creating platforms and opportunities for others to follow their footsteps and take their place in the future. Furthermore, these players act like ambassadors and delegates of these countries. They represent those countries on national and international forums and they become the symbol of the unity and integrity of those nations. Quite understandably, one cannot expect that level of responsibility, humility, and maturity from players who have made their way into the team through corruption (Yost, pp. 284-286). Fourth, when the youngsters in the country will see the senior players doing such a great job, it will give them the energy to put in their best to take the places of their heroes. Strangely, extraordinary performance of any team at a certain event also leads to great deal and boost to other sports in the country as well. Quite understandably, by corrupting the sport, Ghana is depriving itself from these advantages, which it could reap by performing better at international events. On the other side, due to these corruption scandals and system that has been created in the country, the sports are losing interests from the masses, which is the worst possible thing that could happen to sports in Ghana. When the people know that these players are not the best team present in the country but instead, they are a bunch of the most powerful and rich individuals in the country who have made their way to the top through bribery and corruption, they lose their interest in sports. Parents and elders no longer support their children to join clubs and “waste” their time trying to mastering the art of those sports (Nafziger & Ross, pp. 63-64). Sponsors, who are carefully observing these events, pull their money and the sports slowly move towards extinction. Many of the African countries have created similar scenarios for themselves and unfortunately, considering the recent wake of scandals in the sporting world, especially football, the country appears to be following the same route (Nicholls, Daniel, Bacarese & Hatchard, pp. 342-345). Conclusion There are no doubts in the fact that Ghana’s officials dealing with sports will have to make some serious decisions in the near future concerning the future of sports in the country. As they say, it is a “do or die” situation for the country in terms of the future of the sports. Furthermore, whatever decision is taken or whatever direction is chosen, its impacts would be visible over many years. However, important here would be to ensure sincerity, honesty and commitment with the decision. Even as of today, there are a number of institutions, which are present and working (at least on paper) to fight with corruption and prevent it from damaging the country and despite their presence, corruption in the country is still on rise (Gocking, pp. 106-107). Therefore, honesty, sincerity, and commitment are important. Ghana should learn from the example of Greece, which is edge of bankruptcy and default and amongst the various causes behind the same, the one in the frontline is of corruption. The country must learn example from India where thousands of people are protesting against the government so that the government could be forced to take harsher measures against the corruption and especially the corruption of the government officials. Officials will have to realize that this is the 21st century and their corruption will not remain hidden for long in this era of information technology. It is in the best interest of the sport, country, and the future generation to say a permanent goodbye to this practice and initiate a new era of transparency, equality and progress (Levy & Wong, 359-362). Works Cited Ferranti, David M. De. How to improve governance: a new framework for analysis and action. Brookings Institution Press, 2009. Giulianotti, Richard. Globalization and sport. Blackwell Publishing, 2007. Gocking, Roger. The history of Ghana. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005. Levy, Patricia, & Wong, Winnie. Ghana. Marshall Cavendish, 2010. Morgan, William John. Ethics in sport. Human Kinetics, 2007. Nafziger, James A. R., & Ross, Stephen F. Handbook on International Sports Law. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011. National Development Planning Commission (Ghana) & International Monetary Fund. Ghana: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper - 2009 Annual Progress Report. International Monetary Fund, 2010. Nicholls, Colin, Daniel, Timothy, Bacarese, Alan, & Hatchard, John. Corruption and Misuse of Public Office. Oxford University Press, 2011. Rosner, Scott, & Shropshire, Kenneth L. The Business of Sports. Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2010. Simon, Robert L. Fair Play: The Ethics of Sport. Westview Press, 2010. Thornton, Patrick K. Sport’s law. Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2011. Yost, Mark. Varsity green: a behind the scenes look at culture and corruption in college athletics. Stanford University Press, 2009. Read More