Corporate boost for Ghana beach soccer development

One of the fastest growing sports in Ghana is set for a major boost from a number of private and corporate investors.

This development comes on the heels of the announcement that the Ghana Football Association and Supersport will be supporting beach soccer in the 2014 season.

Ghana Sports International can confirm that events, sponsorship and marketing agency Multiple Ideas Ltd (MIL) will take over the rebranding of beach soccer from next year. It is understood that the Ghana Beach Soccer Association (GBSA) needs not less than Gh89,000 ($42,697) to settle outstanding cost from running the league and related development activities at the La Beach Soccer Arena.

The GBSA spokesperson George Addo Jnr is confident that when a deal is struck with MIL, beach soccer will experience rapid progress from 2014. ''Currently we receive about Gh40,000 from Cal Bank for which we are extremely grateful but our season budget alone is close to Gh95,000 so where do we get the extra Gh45,000 from to survive as we have been doing for the past two seasons?''

The answer could obviously be to engage in a more robust yet targeted marketing strategy and this could catapult the sports to heights.

Few can deny the consistent growth of the game since emerging on the domestic sports scene just over six years ago; Beach Soccer has moved from a mere fun seeking amateur gathering event to a double tier league with twenty teams from across Ghana's coastal communities like Nungua, Keta, Labadi, Ada, Senya Bereku, Winneba and Chorkor.

Now, after impressing Cal Bank and Voltic Mineral Water to come on board as the two key sponsors, the GBSA is chasing new backers for 2014 and beyond.

From a starting point in 2007 when the association did not even possess a single beach soccer ball or goal posts, to 2013 when ''Team Ghana'' played at the Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers in Morocco, the sport has made tremendous strides.

Most observers have attributed the relative successes of Ghana Beach Soccer to sports journalist turned media consultant Yaw Ampofo-Ankrah.

But the man who introduced the game as an organised discipline in Ghana has played down the ''success'' tag insisting rather that beach soccer has not even taken off yet. ''I believe that 2014 will be the year that this exciting sport will finally take off in Ghana because the potential for this sport is limitless and what we have managed to do so far is just scratch the surface''.

The CEO of MIL Simon Godonu confirmed that they are in talks with the GBSA to clinch a three year deal but declined to shed more light on the details.