Feature: Tilda Acorlor.
Sport is a preserver of health not a hub for filth!
Sanitation plays a big role in sports.
And this is a good reason why every sportsman should develop the urge to promote good hygienic behavior.
Sportsmen must work hard to protect and preserve the sanctity in sporting facilities and various forms of sports.
At the recent world cup in Russia, Japan and Senegal fans stole the headlines when they decided to stay behind after their World Cup matches to ensure the arenas are left clean and tidy leaving no litter behind.
If World Cups were won because of the behavior of a country's fans, then Japan and Senegal would make the 2018 World Cup final.
Sanitation plays an important role in preventing diseases from causing illnesses among sports people and fans.
According to the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP), Athletes are at a higher risk of contracting diseases like MRSA, staph, herpes, ringworm, impetigo and flu due to negligence and failure in proper sports hygiene.
The AAP outlines few statistics in their report on hygiene.
It states that 10-15% of time lost from practice or competition at the college level is due to skin infections.
It says up to 23% of athletes have been found to have MRSA - a common antibiotic-resistant infection.
Athletes should take note and practice good personal hygiene like washing of the hands, showering after games and proper laundering of sporting apparels on a daily or regular basis, avoid sharing of water bottles, spoons, cups, towels, etc.
Athletes must as well develop a plan for proper cleaning and maintenance of their sanitary sporting environment.
Athletes should learn to be healthy and safe whilst playing the sport they love!
Fans and spectators must learn how to tidy up stadia by adhering to simple rules of dropping liter into available bins and if possible pick them back home and dispose them properly.
Heaped garbage isn’t just unsightly for people but they are dangerous to animals which feed on them.
It seems that dropping liter at the stadia has become acceptable with a notion that stadia have cleaners who would do the job of tidying up the place.
Another problem is open defecation and urination.
The Ho Sports stadium over the years has suffered various forms of littering, open defecation and urination.
The scenario at the Ho Sport Stadium appears to be changing, largely because of the intervention of administrators.
I recall Mr. Kwame Amponfi Jnr. when he assumed office as the Volta regional director for the National Sports Authority.
He was mocked as the “Hygiene Man” because of his radical way of reprimanding any individual who was found littering around the Ho Sports Stadium.
A stand he has maintained and now is catching on.
Good sportsmanship devoid of racism, hooliganism, organised cheating, bribery and all the other sports related vices must be curbed.
Essentially all sports fields and surroundings must be clean, litter free.
Please don't drop that litter there!
Do not drop litter, yes garbage at any sports field.
It is bad practice. If you do, l pray you are penalized.
Yet there are litters that must be dropped in all sports. Got the pun?
Litter, good and bad!
Racism, hooliganism, organised cheating, bribery and all the other sports related vices, are some of litters that all sports people must drop.
Essentially, just like all sports fields and surroundings must be clean, and litter free, we must identify some liters so as to quickly drop them.
These litters are disheartening, intimidating, scary and disparaging.
Racism befalls us every now and then, black athletes who ply their trades outside the shores of their countries attest to the fact that racial comments are usual, although the fight against it is on.
In 2017, former Black Stars player, Sulley Ali Muntari was a subject of racism when he played for Italian Club, Pescara, who is currently in the Italian Serie B.
He was booked for complaining about racist chanting from the crowd during his team’s 1-0 defeat at Cagliari in the Serie A.
Currently, a black skin Belgian, Romelu Lukaku faces same fate as Sulley Muntari in Italy.
Lukaku was subjected to monkey chants as he prepared to take and score the match winning penalty on September, 1 2019 at the Sardegna Arena.
However, following an investigation the Italian Football Federation’s (FIGC) sporting justice panel ruled that the chants could not be considered discriminatory in terms of their “scale and realization”.
Cagliari, however, got fined €5,000 (£4,430) for rowdy behaviour of fans who threw bottles on to the pitch during that Sunday’s 3-1 win at Parma but not on the discriminatory comments and chants.
The England National team led by manager Gareth Southgate is preparing how to react to racism before their Euro 2020 qualifier in Bulgaria on 14 October 2019 following fans racist behavior in June and in 2011 in Bulgaria.
Study shows that racism has a huge mental health impact on people who experience it.
It has an ongoing feeling of sadness, anger, depression and being left out, having little or no trust in anybody apart from family.
Although racist behaviors continue to exist in certain countries, it appears a lot has happened over the years which present a glimmer of hope for equal treatment of all persons irrespective of their color or race.
Racism in any form of Sports is a litter that must be dropped!
Another litter that needs to be dropped in sports is bribery.
In a system where there is corruption there is no fair play.
Ghana and the rest of the world were caught-aback when Anas’s expose unraveled corruption at the Ghana Football Association (GFA) leaving Ghana football in limbo and doubt.
Bribery and corruption is a litter that must be dropped!
In descent non-sportsmanship behavior is another cancer which needs to be dropped.
Every sportsman must be clad in descent attire.
A good sportsman is a disciplinarian in the sport he or she loves, just like in tennis where apology is collective should an athlete hit the net cord or mistakenly gives you a bad serve.
Though the winner of such point isn't obliged to apologize, it is good court etiquette to do so, simply because you might be on the receiving end of that same misfortune.
Now, that is good sportsmanship!
Vulgar words and crowd violence must be frown upon and dropped like a litter so as to be labeled a good sportsman.
Sporting activities are unifying forces that bring people together across the world.
So therefore, Sports can and must be used as a force to champion the campaign for keeping the environment and the world clean.
It is a fight that must be embraced by all and Sportsmen must be at the forefront of this fight.
