Acting Director General of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Prof Emmanuel Osei Sarpong, says demolishing the Accra Sports Stadium is not an immediate solution to the engineering problems affecting the facility.

The stadium has come under scrutiny over its deteriorating condition, with concerns about safety prompting calls for the ageing structure to be demolished and rebuilt.

However, Prof Osei Sarpong believes the authorities must first assess the extent of the problems and determine whether renovation or a complete reconstruction would be the better long-term option.

He said the NSA was examining the stadium’s structural challenges and working to address the issues, although resolving every problem at once would not be possible.

“For me, Accra Sports Stadium is a very good place. We have an engineering problem, and so that is one of the things we are looking at, but we cannot fix everything at a go. We will explore the options to determine whether renovation or building a new stadium would be the best solution,” he told Citi Sports.

“In the interim, we cannot break Accra Sports Stadium down. So we need to look at the gaps one after the other and solve them gradually until we are sure the majority of the gaps are [addressed].”

The Accra Sports Stadium remains one of Ghana’s principal football venues and hosted the Black Stars’ Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Gambia last month.

The facility had also been expected to stage Ghana’s back-to-back 2027 AFCON qualifying fixtures against Somalia next month.

However, Prof Osei Sarpong has indicated that the two matches are likely to be played at the Essipong Stadium in the Western Region.

He said work was already underway to seek clarification from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) regarding the proposed venue.