Nduom prescribes remedy for GPL low patronage

Bank roller of Elmina Sharks Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom has expressed displeasure about Ghana Football Association’s inability to promote the Ghana Premier League to attract potential sponsors.

The League has been without a sponsor since First Capital Bank discontinued its deal some years ago. The Bank signed a five-year-deal worth $10 million in total and $2 million annually with the GFA in January 2014 but opted to halt all actions related to the League due to “several reasons”.

Some stakeholders of Ghana football have attributed the League’s inability to get sponsors to the poor branding of the League. They say low publicity and patronage, as well as a constant change of dates for games within a season, are some of the factors that lead demotivate potential sponsors.

The 2016 presidential aspirant candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) spoke clearly about the issue, blaming the football governing body as the main reason the League lacks sponsor.

“What I regret about is that the GFA does not promote the league. When they solicit for funds instead of them investing it in the league, they rather pay attention to the national teams.” Dr Nduom was speaking with Onua FM.

“As for Elmina Sharks, if we have an upcoming match, from Wednesday we would go around Cape Coast, Sekondi and its environs and because of this, when we are playing it’s exciting. “If Dwarfs and Sharks meet it’s exciting.

Sharks against Kotoko and Hearts [were] very interesting because we promote the game.” He advised the GFA to up their game in making the league interesting and getting sponsorship.

“GFA should promote the league, promote the players and the teams. If it happens, spectators will patronize and sponsors will come on board. When few spectators come and you go to El Wak and see only 20 spectators, it will not trigger a business man to invest. As a business man, I want to see crowd before I invest in something.”