Kwesi Nyantakyi has urged the Ghana Football Association (GFA), the Premier League Board (PLB) and Ghana Premier League clubs to establish a transparent system for distributing sponsorship income, combining financial solidarity with rewards for sporting and commercial success.
Professional football in Ghana, known popularly as the Ghana Premier League (GPL), was officially inaugurated in 1993. Since then, the competition has depended heavily on corporate sponsorship to fund its operations and provide financial support to participating clubs.
A number of major companies have sponsored the league over the years, including Achimota Breweries Limited, Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited, Ghana Telecom (One Touch), Crystal TV, Glo Telecom, SuperSport, Metro TV, First Capital Plus Bank, Zylofon Media and, most recently, betPawa.
Sponsorship is one of the most established financing models in professional football. The sport’s global popularity gives companies an extensive platform for brand exposure, audience engagement and commercial activity. The substantial commercial and sponsorship revenues generated by CAF and FIFA demonstrate the economic scale of football when it is properly organised, marketed and managed.
For Ghanaian clubs, sponsorship is particularly important because the cost of competing in the GPL remains high. Clubs must meet player wages, technical staff costs, accommodation, transport, match-day expenses, signing-on fees, medical bills and a range of other operational commitments.
Nyantakyi said meaningful sponsorship was therefore essential not only to the survival of individual clubs but also to the competitiveness and long-term development of the league.
The GFA has indicated that every Premier League club will receive GHS1 million through an unidentified sponsor. If delivered as announced, the funding would offer clubs some immediate relief and help them meet the financial demands of participating in the competition.
However, Nyantakyi argues that the wider issue is how sponsorship agreements are negotiated and how their proceeds are divided to deliver the greatest benefit to the GPL as a whole.
Lessons from the Glo and SuperSport agreements
The US$15 million Glo sponsorship covering the 2008-2013 period remains the largest and most influential headline sponsorship in GPL history, according to Nyantakyi. It was supplemented by a further US$2.1 million deal with SuperSport over three years.
Those agreements were significant not simply because of the headline amounts involved. They created a structured financial arrangement that supported clubs, match officials and the league’s administrative bodies.
Each Premier League club received a net US$120,000 from the Glo agreement and a further net US$40,000 from the SuperSport sponsorship.
Ten per cent of the Glo income was used to cover officiating costs, including payments for referees, match assessors, match commissioners, coordinators and independent observers.
The sponsorship money also funded the administration and management of the league. This included allowances and expenses for the PLB, disciplinary and appeals committees, the awards ceremony and other activities connected with running the competition.
The arrangement showed that sponsorship income could do more than provide direct payments to clubs. It could also finance the wider institutional structure needed to operate a professional league.
A model based on solidarity
The decision to allocate US$120,000 from the Glo sponsorship and US$40,000 from the SuperSport agreement to each club followed a collective process involving the clubs, the GFA and the PLB.
The distribution system was influenced by established principles and international approaches to sharing central commercial income in professional football.
In June 2011, the GFA invited Sir David Richards, then Chairman of the English Premier League, to Ghana for a two-day consultation with Premier League clubs. The meetings gave local stakeholders the opportunity to study the way commercial and broadcasting revenues were divided in one of the world’s most commercially successful leagues.
The model outlined during the discussions had three main elements. One-third of sponsorship income was shared equally among all clubs. A further one-third was distributed according to television coverage and appearances, while the final third was allocated based mainly on sporting merit and league position.
That approach sought to bring together equality, commercial value and sporting performance.
The GPL adopted a different system, with sponsorship income shared largely equally among participating clubs. League position, television appearances and individual commercial appeal carried much less weight.
The approach reflected the principle of solidarity: a league can only be strong when all its members have a viable financial base. More powerful and commercially attractive clubs cannot prosper over the long term if weaker teams are allowed to collapse.
That principle was especially relevant in Ghana, where Asante Kotoko and Hearts of Oak have traditionally enjoyed larger national followings and greater commercial appeal than many other clubs. Under the solidarity-based approach, their larger fan bases did not result in a disproportionately greater share of central sponsorship revenue.
The bigger clubs consequently accepted a degree of redistribution towards less well-resourced teams. Nyantakyi said this should not be viewed simply as generosity, but as recognition that the value of the GPL depends on having financially stable, competitive and credible clubs throughout the competition.
Balancing equality and performance
Nyantakyi cautioned that solidarity should not automatically mean every sponsorship and commercial payment is divided equally.
He described solidarity and merit as complementary rather than competing principles. A modern distribution system could protect smaller clubs while also rewarding teams that perform strongly, attract larger audiences and make a significant contribution to the commercial appeal of the competition.
The experience of major leagues around the world offers three broad lessons, he said. Equal distribution can strengthen competitive balance and financial stability; merit-based payments can reward sporting excellence; and commercial or broadcast-related payments can recognise the market value generated by individual clubs.
A sustainable model for the GPL should balance all three factors.
As Ghanaian football seeks larger and more reliable sponsorship agreements, the GFA, PLB and clubs should work towards a predictable and transparent framework for distributing central commercial revenues.
Such a structure could be built around solidarity, sporting merit, and appearances and visibility. It would maintain financial protection for less powerful clubs while preserving meaningful rewards for achievement and commercial performance.
Nyantakyi said the GPL’s sponsorship history showed that corporate investment could have a transformative impact on elite football. In his view, the Glo and SuperSport period provided a particularly valuable example of how major commercial partnerships could support clubs while also financing the administration and day-to-day operation of the competition.
