Spacefon Signs Sponsorship Deal With Kotoko

The Minister for Youth and Sports, Joe Aggrey has called on football clubs to be transparent in their dealings to be able to attract corporate sponsorship. Aggrey said that corporate bodies would only come to sponsor clubs when they realise that the administrators of the game are transparent in the areas of player transfer and declaration of audited accounts.

The Deputy Minister who was speaking as the guest of honour at the re-launch of the Spacefon and Asante Kotoko sponsorship deal regretted that the two most glamorous clubs in Ghana, Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko continuously fail to comply with the laid down rules by failing to declare their accounts.

The new sponsorship deal which guaranteed Asante Kotoko the sum of one billion and five hundred million cedis (1.5bn) a year was described the deputy minister as very commendable being on the same level as that of Kinapharma's Pharmaceuticals' sponsorship for the league.

In his address the Managing Director of Scancom Limited, operators of Spacefon, Mr Ahmed Farouk referred to Asante Kotoko as the number one club in the country and said his company was happy to be associated with the club. Farouk intimated that Spacefon decided to increase the sponsorship deal from 900 million to 1.5 billion as a result of Asante Kotoko's performance in last year's domestic league and the African Cup Winners Cup, as well as its current placing in the Kinapharma Premier League.
Mr Sylvester Asare Owusu, the Chairman of the IMC of Asante Kotoko expressed the appreciation of the IMC for the improved package from Spacefon. He hoped that the marriage would exist even after the initial five-year contract expires "since the deal has benefited the two parties."
The IMC Chairman said that the current expenditure of the club has been increased by 300 per cent due to the improved conditions of technical personnel and the playing body and repeated the age-long message "management cannot depend on gate proceeds and the benevolence of few supporters alone."
Mr Asare Owusu was however confident that his management would do what is expected to make the club win both the domestic league and the African Cup Winners Cup. He claimed that by recruiting the best crop of players in the country, he had no doubt in his mind that with the support of the spiritual head, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II the club will achieve its targets.
Dignitaries at the function included the Regional Minister Mr. S.K. Boafo, the Chairman of the Professional League Board (PLB); Sylvester Mensah who chaired the function and other members of the IMC as well some distinguished members of the general public.