The chairman of the Ghana Beach Sports Association Yaw Ampofo-Ankrah is hopeful that 2010 will see the emergence of Beach Soccer and Beach Volleyball as major new sports in Ghana. Speaking to the media on plans for a Media Beach Soccer Tournament, Ampofo-Ankrah said the media and coastal communities will be at the heart of any major and meaningful push to develop beach sports in the country. "Bringing print houses, radio stations and television networks to play against each other is a sure way to get them involved as stakeholders and not just news carriers." As to why it has taken so long for the Beach Sports association to get going, he explained that major challenges that were confronting the association meant that meticulous and patient planning had to proceed any new project. "We are facing a lot of obstacles and the last thing you want to do is to rush into making hasty decisions." In June 2009, the Ghana Beach Sports Association (GBSA) was reconstituted by the National Sports Council with a new mandate and membership. The eight member association was tasked to revitalize, promote and develop beach sports in the country. The CEO of the National Sports Council WK Agra charged the association to "do something out of the ordinary with this great asset". The original birth of the association was an historic event which took place on Friday 26 January 2007. That year, the GBSA was officially inaugurated by the then Chief executive of the National Sports Council (NSC), Prince Ernest Oduro Mensah. Yaw Ampofo Ankrah is largely credited with introducing "organised" Beach sports into Ghana nearly three years ago but he is quick to share that credit and set the records straight. "It was a collective mission involving a number of people and there was no way the association could have been formed to allow us to operate on my own". The historic inauguration at the Labadi Beach Hotel followed the seal of approval from the NSC, and the sanctioning of the GBSA to organize, promote and develop ALL beach sports events in Ghana. The first ever organised Ghana Beach Soccer tournament followed a few weeks later when media houses in the capital competed for the Media Beach Soccer Cup at La Beach Resort. The eventual winner was a local FM station in Accra who brushed aside all opposition to take home the cup. Since then the association has been virtually dormant and beset with numerous problems. The GBSA chairman explains: "After the fun, pomp and pageantry, the big question was always going to be what next? The first mistake we made was to invest in a beach sports structure at the La Pleasure Beach which we hoped would host events to allow us pay back our creditors." The reality was the opposite as the wooden arena was vandalized in no time and ravaged by the hostile conditions of the sea. This led to a serious problems and progress came to a halt. Ampofo Ankrah says he shoulders full responsibility for the mistakes but concedes that lessons have been learnt the hard way. "As with all visions, there must be an action plan that should be guided by the key objectives of promotion and development as well as bringing as many benefits to as many people as possible and so this time around we are going about things in a business fashion." In view of this, the GBSA has set out to demystify the notion that Beach Sports like Beach Soccer and Beach volleyball do not draw big crowds in coastal communities because it is a sport that has been hijacked and tailored for television and not the communities or masses. In reality, a key objective of the GBSA is to ensure that the very communities in which Beach Sports would be played benefit from the sports first. This is the only way that the wider Ghanaian sports industry would also develop. It is indeed a sign of the huge potential of Beach Sports in Ghana that the new acting CEO of the NSC Mr. WK Agra has initiated a number of potential partnerships to be tabled in raising the profile of the sport. To this end, the GBSA's key targets of educational and social development via beach sports, would see the GBSA adopting and promulgating beach sports along coastlines, inland and then nationwide. Press briefing for registration of media houses will take place on Thursday November 5 at the Media Centre of the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium.