He added: “the impotence of athletes, officials and lack of proper facility, all of this put together, explain the poor state of sports in the country. Sports have lot of gaps, issues, lack of transparency and the right calibre of people who can run the daily affairs of its administration”.

The minister further stated that few months ago he was privileged to have asked the ministry of education to give scholarships to people who wanted to read a degree in sports administration.

“I posted this in a social media forum called ‘sports family’ but no one applied. That means we in sports family are not serious” the minister said, and called on the sports family to reposition young people in the sporting arena. He lamented that instead of young people competing in track races they had instead competed in “drugs and alcohol” taking, indicating that they had no avenue to reposition themselves.

In an earlier statement made on behalf of the sporting family on 27 October, 2016 authorities said: “the big problem we have is that we still see sports as what we knew when we were going to school. Gone are those days. Sport is now very scientific in administration and implementation. If this is accepted and addressed half the problem would have been solved”.

The statement said the use of power to administer and implement would not wok, adding that square pegs in round holes would not work either.

“People cannot be given exco positions – whether by election or selection – just because of popularity or money. Administrative heads and secretarial positions should be held by people who are competent. People who have the know-how…the skills…the basic education… leadership qualities”.

They said there should be basic requirements for officers of the associations, adding that sports administration is a specialty of its own and should not be administered just by anybody.