The President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kurt Okraku, has appealed to Parliament’s Youth and Sports Committee to lead efforts to remove restrictions on alcoholic beverage companies sponsoring sports activities in Ghana.
He said the restriction was denying sports organisations significant financial support, citing a proposed annual sponsorship deal worth more than US$5 million with Guinness Ghana Limited that collapsed after the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) rejected the proposal.
Appearing before the Committee, Mr Okraku said Guinness Ghana had approached the GFA with plans to invest heavily in the Ghana Premier League.
“We were approached by Guinness Ghana Limited wanting to invest heavily in the Ghana Premier League. We did whatever we had to do. We had series of meetings. At the end, FDA said no. The deal was, if I’m not mistaken, over $5 million a year,” he said.
He urged Parliament to remove the provision that gives the FDA authority to approve or reject sponsorship arrangements involving alcoholic beverage companies.
“Mr Chairman, if there’s one thing that you can do to help sports and football, that will be for you to lead the charge to completely take out that provision,” he appealed.
Mr Okraku said international football leagues continued to benefit from sponsorship deals with major alcohol brands, while Ghanaian sports organisations were losing similar opportunities.
Beyond sponsorship, the GFA President identified poor playing surfaces, inadequate stadium facilities and limited investment in technical development as major challenges facing Ghanaian football.
He said sustained success required continuous investment in grassroots and youth football, coach education and international exposure for local coaches.
He also called for improved scouting systems, quality pitches for players at all levels and better stadium infrastructure.
“If one has to be honest, Mr Chairman, there is a lot more that brings sustained success in football. This includes, but is not limited to, continuous investment in grassroots football, continuous investment in youth football, sustained and continuous investment in coach education, exposing your coaches to the international market,” he said.
He warned that without sustained investment in these areas, Ghana would struggle to achieve consistent success in major football competitions.
