Government's exploitation of football is killing the game

After the Super Clash between Hearts and Kotoko at the Accra Sports Stadium, many felt that the Phobians will have their purse bloated to mitigate their huge expenditure but sadly, the government took close to half the total amount realised.

Hearts were reported to have realised a little over GHC400,000 at the gates but in actual fact, the deductions made before the Phobians could get their share was just a confirmation of the fact that the government is only interested in killing football in the country.

I remember President Mahama in the 2014 State of the Nation Address mentioned how the government will collaborate with the Ghana FA to develop football. However, the opposite is what we are experiencing.

Going through the deductions made after the game, one could easily conclude that football contributes more to the country than what the country does to develop the game.

That is why some of us felt very bad when the current Sports Minister, in an attempt to raise money for the ministry, compelled the President and other Executive Committee members of the Ghana FA to buy tickets.

We did because that is not the way to go. If indeed the Minister is interested in helping the system, the numerous taxes levied on football teams must be mitigated.

Let's quickly take a look at the deductions made after the Hearts/Kotoko clash.

Deductions on Gross amount:

¤ Sports Authority (Stadium Mentainance) - 5%

¤ Security - 5%

¤ VAT - 17.5%

That is, a total of 27.5% is deducted by the state right after the game.

Hold it, that is not all.

The following are also deducted from the gross total.

? Cost of Printing tickets

? St. John Ambulance

? Red Cross

? National Ambulance

? Ball Boys

? Ticket sellers and checkers

? Turnstile Operators

? Cash Room

It is after this stage that the home club is given the opportunity to her share of the gate proceeds.

At this stage the Premier League Board [PLB], the Ghana Football Association [GFA] and the Ghana League Clubs Association [GHALCA] take 5%, 10% and 5% respectively.

Strangely, the National Sports Authority deducts another 10% from the net gate proceeds after the earlier deduction of 5% for stadium maintenance.

In all the government alone, represented by the NSA, VAT and The Security alone take 37.5% of the gate proceeds with only the mother bodies, GFA, PLB and GHALCA taken a total of 20% from the proceeds.

The strange aspect of this is that, the home club involved gets less than 40% of the proceeds as the remaining 42. 5% suffers the minor deductions noted above.

So how can the government, the same body that assumes a position of helping develop football, syphon the poor football teams with the little they hope to develop themselves.

In the instance of Hearts of Oak, a little over GHC200, 000 was chopped off by government and other bodies leaving the club with barely half of the total amount realised.

It is sad that Ghanaians are blinded by political calls and affiliations and that little attention is given to objectivity in matters of this nature.

Recently, I published an articles about the Chinese Super League and how their government is committed to helping develop the sport.

The Chinese government has set a target of becoming the biggest marketable league in the world by 2025, and has set a target that by that time, CSL will be worth €534 million. This is vision and this is what we need to develop our sports industry.

If indeed the Minister of Sports, Hon. Nii Lante Vanderpuye really is committed to helping the system.as he has been chanting, then he should rather look at reducing the 32.5% of deductions that goes to the state, rather than asking administrators of the game to buy tickets before they watch their own products.

Football deserves better!