Millions required for African Youth Games

ALLSPORTS
The Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) is expected to announce whether Botswana would host the African Youth Championships later this month. The ANOCA executive board is expected to deliberate on this issue during a meeting later this month. Previous indications were that Botswana had made a successful bid to host the games provided the Botswana National Olympic Committee(BNOC) raised part of the money in time. The Youth African games will be an unprecedented event in the history of Botswana if the country is granted rights to host. The games will be the single biggest sporting event ever to be hosted in the country. The Olympic styled games will have huge demand in terms of logistics, human resources and sporting facilities.

Speaking to BG Sports this week, BNOC Chief Executive Officer Tuelo Serufho said the Youth championship will attract over 50 countries from Africa, adding that the number of athletes participating may not exceed those who compete in the Olympic games. “This event will be bigger than regional Botswana Integrated Sports Association (BISA) and Confederations of University and College Sports Association (CUCSA) competitions. This competition will test Botswana like never before,” he said. Serufho said the event would demand that they have flags and national anthems of all countries competing. “There will also be medal presentations when some of the events are completed while the rest of the competition is ongoing,” he said.

According to Serufho, the BNOC is already soliciting expertise from experienced Olympic committees like Germany and America. “Some of them have already pledged support and they will assist in specific areas when the official announcement is made,” he said. The games, which serve as qualifiers for the Youth Olympic games, are scheduled for May 2014. Contacted for comment the Director of Sports at the Ministry of Sports Youth and Culture, Falcon Sedimo said government was still waiting for the BNOC to raise enough funds to host the games.

Sedimo said when the bid was made in London last year the BNOC was expected to raise   money towards the games. “ANOCA was also expected to assist with part of the money,” he said.  Sedimo revealed that government was also expected to contribute approximately P28 million towards the games. “Government was committed, but unfortunately the BNOC was not in a position to raise part of the money,” he said. According to Sedimo, government cannot provide any more money towards the games because of the harsh economic times.

 The Director of Sports said if all the parties had committed to raising the money, ANOCA would have already announced Botswana as the host country as there is only 15 or 17 months until the games are held. Sedimo said he was not aware of the money the BNOC was supposed to raise but the figure was below the amount government would contribute.