Ahead of the 2025 Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) Awards, Dr. Ernest Acheampong, a senior lecturer at the University of Education-Winneba (UEW) Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Sports, has raised concerns over the continuous sidelining of sports researchers in the awards scheme.
He said this in an exclusive interview with Citi Sports in the lead up to this year’s Awards that is scheduled to take place on Friday, January 24.
The annual event awards stakeholders who have played prominent roles in developing sports in a period under review and this year’s edition is set to be headlined by President of Ghana John Dramani Mahama and Sports and Recreation Minister Designate Kofi Adams.
However, Dr. Acheampong believes that the award scheme should include people in sports academia whose research provides key data needed to improve sports in Ghana.
“I am even surprised that when they are organizing SWAG Awards, they forget about the academics who write on sports who try to bring things out so that it can inform policy direction but here is the case that they always exempt us forgetting that when we do the research, it has that impact. They are not doing that.”
Black Stars and West Ham United midfielder Mohammed Kudus won the Sports Personality Award at last year’s SWAG Awards.
