The impasse between the Association of African Sports Confederations (UCSA), the Association of African Olympic Committees (ANOCA), and the African Union regarding the African Games has been resolved.
This follows a successful meeting between all three parties with Ghana’s Sports Minister, Mustapha Ussif on Saturday in Caro, Egypt.
The resolution now means UCSA, the body responsible for providing internationally recognized technical officials for athletics competitions on the continent, will send its officials for the Accra 2023 Games.
Furthermore, ANOCA, which had in August 2022, threatened to organize separate Olympic Qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, will now rescind its decision, in recognition of Accra 2023 as the main qualifying event on the continent.
Asaase Sports understands that reservations over the Game’s marketing rights were also addressed with all parties – Ghana, ANOCA, and the African Union, satisfied with the outcome.
Ghana will now have to redirect its focus towards completing the University of Ghana Sports Stadium and Borteyman Olympic Stadiums in time for the Games although a date is yet to be set.
So what was this year-long-dispute all about?
In October 2021, Ghana signed a Protocol Agreement with the African Union after its bid to host the Games was accepted. Subsequently, Ghana’s Finance Ministry paid $900,000 to the African Union as part of the agreement.
The protocol agreement according to reports gave Ghana a significant share of the competitions marketing rights that did not sit well with ANOCA and UCSA.
Speaking at ANOCA’s General Assembly held in April 2022, the organization’s President Mustapha Berraf, said the AU’s a second contract with Ghana was ”illegal and irreverent behaviors of the AU institutions and administrative officials” and also accused them of ”refusing to engage, contrary to the international rules for the organization of multi-disciplinary Games”.
He referred to the AU-Ghana Protocol agreement as ‘second’ because the AU had signed a similar a agreement three years prior.
In 2019, the AU signed a tripartite agreement with ANOCA and UCSA to essentially give a controlling stake of the AU’s tournaments. Under the 2019 agreement, the marketing and management of the competitions were entrusted to ANOCA while the technical aspects of competitions were entrusted to UCSA.
The AU would subsequently set up a special purpose vehicle; the Technical Committee for the African Games (TCAG) to run the competition. Their first project was the Rabat 2019 Games. The Committee delivered on its mandate with no major issues.
In May 2022, following an intervention by Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, ANOCA and UCSA tentatively agreed to participate. Before they would join though, they asked the AU to increase their representation on the TCAG to seven (7).
Beyond this, the two parties also insisted on reviewing the earlier marketing agreement and proposed a new revenue sharing formula for proceeds from the games to be distributed among the host country, AU, ANOCA and UCSA.
Although it is not clear what Saturday’s agreements were, it is certain all parties are satisfied with the terms.
