Local Football Coverage; In Whose Interest?

Call it an open secret, an undeniable fact or a glaring truth and you would not be wrong in all three cases. SPORTS – be it ski, golf, polo, fencing, athletics, boxing, etc. - has assumed the enviable status of being a passion of millions the world over.

Rightfully so in the general scheme of events, especially so because the millions of people who are ‘head over heels’ with sports of all kinds have resorted to taking sports as an outlet for stress, for entertainment and for others in line of their duty.

If sports are taken as a whole, the most patronized subset within the sports fraternity would most definitely be the game of football (referred to as soccer elsewhere). The game has over the years gained and continues to gain popularity across the world.

A point worthy of note however, is that the rising popularity of the game is premised on several factors - management of the sport, the players, the fans and lately business moguls et al. But in there lies the media, the biggest player if you ask me.

The popularity of the game has come about the world over largely due to a calculated attempt by media organizations obviously in collaboration with managers of the sport, to dedicate prime time to it, the end result of which is its heightened popularity.

The media – print and electronic – are important drivers of information and potent vehicles in the amplification of issues, football, relative to this piece. Little wonder that one form or the other of a media format reaches at least every one person in the world.

SITUATION OF SPORTS (FOOTBALL) COVERAGE IN GHANA

In the particular instance of Ghana, sports coverage cuts across the media landscape. One can situate sports content in print (newspapers & magazines), in the mass/electronic media, (radio & television) and on internet portals dedicated to sports (soccernet, kickoff, footyghana)

Without belabouring the point, football is the single sport that attracts the most attention, first on the basis of patronage and popularity and even on the part of sports journalists in the choice of issues in the coverage of sports.

In the case of newspaper coverage, football has almost always proven to make the lead stories of the sports papers that jostle for space on most newsstands with other papers that carry political, business and entertainment stories.

Beyond just football however, foreign football in most cases has successfully out- muscled local football in the choice of front page prominence of particular football stories. It is so for a paper like 90 Minutes, Ghana Sports and Kick Off Ghana.

In the case of the above set of newspapers, their work by way of news gathering is largely premised on the use of internet, from where most stories and pictures are copied, with one or two local stories in there.

The Africa Sports for instance, does local stories but occasionally wades into foreign leagues – apparently because they sell. All Sports does more stories to do with the foreign based players, whiles state-owned Graphic Sports hardly carries foreign football stories on its front.

Research has however, proven that the militating factors against print media as above enumerated are the low literacy levels amongst some sports lovers, coupled with the cost of these newspapers which go in many instances for GH¢1.00

Then comes the case of arguably the major players - radio and TV - partly because sports lend themselves more prominently to audio and to audio-visuals.

Radio, in all of these, and as per our contemporary situation, stands tall with advantages ranging from timeliness with respect to delivery of football news, ease in securing sponsorship and the use of local languages in the broadcasting process.

The point about television’s role in popularizing football is where my beef lies. The issue of selling rights for football coverage has seen the Ghana Football Association (GFA) marketing department give exclusive rights to media outfits but almost always to the detriment of the popularity of the game and of mileage of the coverage.

The Ghana League Clubs Association (GHALCA) and Premier League Board (PLB) have also gone down the same route as the GFA, handing coverage rights without recourse to the consideration of the final consumer, again the ordinary fan.

In its bid to make extra money, legitimately so, with funds from the sale of rights, the GFA has on several occasions ended up rendering the sport less popular, especially to the ordinary football fan who is supposed to be its target.

Once when exclusive media rights were given to the multimedia group – then Joy and Adom Fm - to cover a TOP 4, most club officials admitted to the very low level of interest in the competition, hinging on the fact that a station as Peace Fm was not allowed to broadcast the games because they did not get the rights to do so.

The same instance played out in the case of last seasons’ Glo Premier League, when Metro TV was given exclusive rights to cover all matches; that they did but beyond which I dare say the required mileage was not gotten.

One may ask why in its second season, the rights have now been handed to TV3 to also cover the premier league? At the risk of sounding like a lobbyist for the state-owned GTV, why is it not given the rights to cover the league?

Again, at a time when the now defunct Gateway Broadcast Services (GBS) and AFRISAT were granted exclusive rights to cover the league - without giving even highlights of the games to terrestrial TV stations - popularity of the local game plummeted, same with the DSTV deal with Metro TV being on the satellite providers’ list of channels.

The GFA must bear in mind that before the sale of rights became what it is today, GTV was covering most of the premier league games, and to which extent the state broadcaster which goes furthest than all other networks, must be brought on board.

Whiles advising the cat, the fish must also be cautioned, by which measure GTV must also lend itself to a business plan that would be symbiotic to the GFA and to its commercial and public interest as a state broadcaster. More often than not, the quality of pictures that appear on GTV is appalling to say the least. Then again, viewers get disappointed when in the course of a football match the pictures disappear all of a sudden – leaving them (viewers) to only view a white and shaking screen.

One is left to wonder who is doing the other a favour relative to the GFA and the influential media outfits that go far and are better positioned to provide the necessary mileage in terms of popularizing our local football.

THE SAD STATE OF GTV SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS

GTV Sports Highlights sometime back was a flagship programme that was a reference point for a review of sporting events but with football being at the centre.

Local football and other sports were given privileged slots on the programme hosted by the celebrated Ghanaian journalist and editor of the Africa Sports newspaper, Kwabena Yeboah.

Sadly though, because GTV does not have rights to broadcast the GLO Premier League and with no access to highlights, the whole programme has been reduced to some keep-fit programmes, church and organizations’ fun games and with a large chunk of the better part of 20 minutes dedicated to tit bits from around the world of sports - a situation that invariably goes to boost interest in foreign football at the detriment of local football.

The coverage of football must be seen by the (football) authorities as a perishable commodity and must be sold as quickly as possible to avoid the losses that we are getting relative to low interest in local football.

More than ever, coverage of the sport must be geared towards two main ends, the first of which is the symbiotic and mutual interest of the GFA and of the TV networks as well as to ensure that every local football fan can savour a bit of the local footy action.

Truth is, the local football with respect to going to the stadiums, is nothing to write home about and with competition with foreign leagues being a mismatch of sorts, compromises must be reached and deals agreed but with the fan in mind and broad coverage as the focus.

What business do fans have watching foreign leagues when our local ones become exciting and important in the general scheme of events? We can lift the league to the lofty status we all desire to see it and it must start with defining clearly in whose interest the coverage is; but if you ask me, I think the fans must be KEY.

By Shaban Barani Alphaalfarsenal@yahoo.com, newcguide@gmail.com