Journalists are not to blame for GPL problems - Yeboah

Kwabena Yeboah, president of the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (Swag), has rejected claims blaming local media for the perceived slump of the Ghana Premier League.

The competition has been widely chastised for lacking attractiveness, particularly in the quality of play and players, sponsorship, marketability as well as infrastructure.

And according to Ghana Fa communications director Ibrahim Sannie Daara and the chairman of Ghana’s Parliamentary Committee on Sports, Kwabena Mensah Woyome, the unfortunate situation may have been due to low publicity and derogatory remarks from some media outlets against the topflight.

“In the past when the Ghana Premier League was fascinating, there were journalists who were making several [negative] comments about it, yet the enthusiasm was very high,” Yeboah was quoted as saying by Gazzetta Ghana.

“I don’t think journalists are the reason why attendances have been low. They are the least of the factors.

“The league is nothing to write home about. I am not convinced about officiating. There has also been the issue of matches whose outcomes could be predicted even before they’re played.

“Another worrying area is that, most of the players in the league travel abroad because we can’t meet their financial demands.

“We wanted to synchronize our league with the major European ones and we ended up delaying the league in the past to meet that. But right now, the European calendar has reached mid-season while we’re still struggling to find a date to begin ours.”

Currently without a headline sponsor, the 2015-16 Ghana Premier League’s commencement has been hit with delay due to disciplinary and legal challenges.