The Ghana Football Association seems to have encountered a setback to the nation’s soccer development. With a few weeks left for the 2002 soccer season to kick off, Ghana Breweries Limited (GBL) sponsors of the GFA’s elite soccer competitions – Star Premier League and FA/ABC cup have terminated their deal.
The GBL dropped the bombshell at a meeting held with the FA in Accra last Thursday, citing financial constraints as one of its main reasons. GBL, which pumped about 850 million cedis into last year’s competitions, also complained among others that dividends from the sponsorship agreement were not forth coming as expected.
The two parties entered into the agreement about five years ago under one of GBL’s brand names ‘ABC’, which was changed to ‘Star’ last year. Even with the sponsorship in place, the GFA and professional league board had problems paying referees fees to the Referees Association of Ghana on schedule.
Faced with such a cumbersome problem, the GFA is said to be preparing to meet the various television stations in the country to tackle the issue of sponsoring in terms of rights for coverage of the matches. The meeting is geared towards drawing the attention of the television stations to either pay for the coverage of organized matches or stay away from them.
