African Para Games: Search begins for 2027 host city

The search to find a host city for the next edition of the African Para Games has begun in earnest, a year on from the first event in Ghana.

To help with arrangements, the African Paralympic Committee (APC) has signed a partnership agreement with sports agency Team TOC, who are organisers of the European Para Championships, and the Netherlands-based firm hopes to include more sports when the next African Para Games are held in 2027.

Although the most recent editions of the Africa Para Games and African Games were both held in Accra, using the same facilities, unlike the Paralympics there is no agreement that both events must always be hosted by the same city.

“In looking to the future, our decision is to host the second edition with an agency that we think has great connections with international federations and a clear understanding of how to organise the Games,” APC president Samson Deen told BBC Sport Africa.

“We need to be better than the first one. We have signed for 2027 and 2031. In the next nine months we are to work together and [find] a host city in Africa.

“The potential is there. What we need is the energy to create opportunities for athletes. Africa needs to do a lot more.”

The partnership was signed during an APC summit in Paris on Tuesday while the 2024 Paralympics continue in the French capital.

The first African Para Games in Accra hosted amputee football, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis – but only the latter two sports are featured at the Paralympics.

The European Para Championships, meanwhile, included 10 different sports which are all Paralympic disciplines at its first edition in Rotterdam in August 2023.

“I believe para-sports, in whatever continent, deserves a better platform,” Team TOC chief executive Eric Kersten told BBC Sport Africa.

“It’s always hard to find a good host city that first of all has all the facilities that we need, and that depends on the number of sports, but also the financial support that this event needs.

“Five or six sports for [2027] would be great but we are not looking for quantity, but instead quality.

“I am quite confident because we already have the contacts and contracts with the international federations. Hopefully we can make it work.”

The APC has also declared 3 September to be the annual day of para-sport across the continent.

The date marks the anniversary of the inaugural African Para Games in Accra, and the hope is that each country across the continent will celebrate and promote disability sport to boost awareness and participation.

“We chose 3 September as a day that will remain very historic to us in para-sports,” Deen said.

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