In a story that almost harks back to that old Remington razor advert – It was so good that I bought the company. Ghana’s Robert Tetteh Coleman followed that model when he took an interest in artificial playing surfaces.
Astroturf Leader in Ghana
Back in 2013 Coleman experienced playing on an artificial sports surface for the first time. The story he tells is that he was so impressed that he spoke to the owner about buying into the concept. This led to training on astroturf installation at a specialist in Turkey. Very shortly, according to Coleman, he was installing pitches in Ghana.
His journey into building Astroturf started in 2013 when he went to play football with his friends on a small Astroturf at Dworwulu, a suburb of Accra.
Coleman’s Wembley Sports Construction Company Limited is now claimed to be the leader in astroturf in Ghana.
An artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibres made to look like natural grass. The specific product used was “ChemGrass“, developed by Monsanto and rebranded as Astroturf. This term since then became a generic trademark for any artificial turf throughout the late 20th century.
According to Coleman, so far, Wembley Sports Construction has constructed over 34 Astroturf pitches around the country with others under construction.
Coleman said that Wembley Sports Complex at the Kotobabi Cluster of Schools in Accra was the first-ever Astroturf he built in the country.
“Unfortunately, the construction of the modern facility did not go as smoothly as planned. Because artificial turfs were not common at that time, the people did not appreciate their enormous benefits. But later, residents of Kotobabi bought into the idea, and Astroturf has now become a household name in Ghana,” he stated.
Wembley Sports Construction Company is believed to be the only company in West Africa which produces pitches supervised by local professionals and validated by FIFA, the world’s football governing body.
“Our pitches are of the highest quality. We use the grass of FIFA-preferred companies, notably China-based CC Grass and Hatko based in Turkey. Quality is our hallmark,” he stated.
Coleman said Wembley Sports was currently embarking on a One Constituency, One Astroturf campaign and added that there were about 12,000 parks dotted around the country and 275 Astroturf fields would be woefully inadequate.
Source: Graphic Online
