It was our decision to cancel StarTimes 10-year contract- Akofa Banson

StarTimes Ghana Head of Marketing, Akofa Banson has revealed that the decision to cancel the 10-year contract signed between the company and the Ghana Football Association (GFA) was at the request of her company.

According to her, the absence of football on the local scene after the Anas exposé leading to the government banning all football activities made them incur huge loses.

Speaking in an interview on Asempa FM on why the initial contract signed in 2016 was cancelled she said, “our old contract signed between the GFA for 10 years was truncated because of the long absence of football in the country after the Anas exposé”.

“We were losing money and kept asking the GFA when football will return and we were not getting any response. So we decided that the contract was not benefitting us and we both had a mutual agreement to cancel the contract”.

A Press Release from the Chinese pay-tv operators following the cancellation of the earlier deal read, “StarTimes signed a 10-year contract as the official media broadcaster of the Ghana Football Association in 2016.

“With this strategic partnership agreement, StarTimes acquired all media rights of Ghana Football properties for 10 years.

“StarTimes has invested over 2 million US dollars in Ghana Football with hardly any tangible returns so far. Despite all our investments as a company, our goals and targets were not met to ensure the smooth running of our business.

“We have suffered huge losses as expected revenue from advertisers who had pledged to spend on our platform could not be realised and the investments made into the game could not be recouped due to the abrupt truncation of the league.

We had signed deals with advertisers and since there was no platform to advertise their product due to the absence of football we decided to cancel, the statement read.

StarTimes have since been awarded the television rights of the Ghana Premier League and FA Cup for the next five seasons worth a little over USD $5 million.