Ghanaian Times Editorial: Award of broadcast right to StarTimes: GFA must think again

Many Ghanaians were not only shocked but felt humiliated by the decision of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to award the broadcast right for the Ghana Premier League to StarTimes.

Since the announcement last week, well-meaning Ghanaians have variously condemned the decision as insensitive and unpatriotic.

The GFA and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) have also been trading words in defence of their position.

While the GBC feels aggrieved over the decision by the GFA to bypass their bid to award the broadcasting right to StarTimes, the GFA sees nothing wrong with it.

In a statement issued last Wednesday, the state broadcaster slammed the FA for being biased on the awarding of the right to StarTimes.

It among others stated that the offer it made to the GFA was significantly better than StarTimes and wondered why the association ignored it and settled for StarTimes.

In response, the GFA accused the GBC of deliberately misleading the public and insisted that their final bid did not meet the deadline it gave.

According to the FA, despite GBC offering a better financial package than the eventual bid winners, other conditions stipulated in the offer did not meet the expectations of the association.

“It must be stated clearly that even if only the financials alone were considered, the fourth bid of GBC was not the highest financial consideration. Two other proposals were higher than the GBC bids but other conditions affected those bids,” it said.

The Ghanaians Times has followed the arguments of the two parties as well as the discussions by members of the public and has come to the firm conclusion that the GFA did not treat GBC fairly.

Let’s for one moment say that the FA took the decision purely on the bids that the two institutions presented to it, couldn’t the FA consider the fact that GBC could have served Ghanaians better in terms of their free to air facility?

Besides, where is the local content, made in Ghana product and all the mantra that we bandied around if it came to patronising our own products?

Here we are, talking about Ghana Beyond Aid and yet we continue to despise our own institutions and reject them at the most critical point.

What the GFA did although might not be illegal, is a slap in the face of most Ghanaians who supported the promotion of our local institutions and products.

We call on the GFA to rethink its position because the benefits that Ghanaians would derive from GBC being awarded the right far outweighs that of StarTimes.

We all know that GBC and StarTimes have collaborated in the past to telecast the Premier League matches and stand in a good position to do so on their own.

We therefore urge the GFA to look at all the advantages that would accrue to the country if the GBC was awarded the broadcast the right.