No athlete is bigger than the Ghana Athletics Association – Prof. Dodoo

The President of the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA) Prof. Francis Dodoo has stated that, discipline is the outfit’s hallmark and that no athlete is bigger than the GAA.

He said this in relation to the suspension of Olympic youth Gold medalist Martha Bissah’s false allegations against the Association.

The suspension comes as a result of the athlete’s accusations in the media of the GAA demanding GH¢7,000 from her to be offered the scholarship, which she gained after winning the first Gold medal at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

This led the GAA to invite Bissah on two occasions to discuss issues with her but she failed to attend and for the third time, the Association wrote her a letter and she came with the brother, Ntow and Kwaku Nimako.

According to the President of the Association, he told Nimako his outfit had no issues with him and that he prefers meeting the athlete, but Bissah disagreed which brought the meeting to a futile end.

“We invited Martha for a meeting, she didn’t come and we again invited her for a second meeting and she didn’t come and we then wrote a letter and invited her for the third time. She came with Ntow and Kwaku Nimako.

“We asked who they were and one happens to be her brother. And we told them GAA has no issue with Nimako and her position was that she won’t allow Nimako to leave.

“So we asked her if Nimako is not leaving, she can’t talk to GAA and she said yes. So the meeting was called to an end and they left. GAA has no other choice than to take the decision that we took,” Prof. Dodoo explained.

On his part, ‘‘no athlete is bigger than GAA, absolutely no athlete. As long as I’m the president of the GAA, athletes must behave well cos GAA is not smaller than them’’.

He added that, the 800m runner can be reinstated depending on the outcome of the meeting they will have with her. ‘‘What I’m hoping is that things will change in a point where Martha comes back to sit with the GAA let her know the issues that we wanted to discuss in the first place with her.

‘‘We can take her but it depends on the outcome of the meeting. If you look at the GAA selection criteria, you have to be fit, disciplined and make the qualifying standard.

“You can be dropped for misconduct even if you run the fastest in the World because we want the athletes to know that there is a disciplinary code  and we expect athletes to live up to that’’.

Source: GNA