Over the years I have had to ponder over the future of the exciting Ghana Premier League and much of my thinking basically centered on why the league fails to attract lucrative sponsorships for some years now.

It may sound a bit boring to some of us, especially, talking about the same story over and over again without any headway but still we cannot deny ourselves the headache of talking about it dispassionately since the Ghana Premier League will continue to be in our DNA till eternity unless otherwise.

What has prompted me eventually to move away from the microphone for now and rather pour my thoughts on paper is the fact that most football club owners have begun venting their spleen on the Ghana Football Association and even threatening to boycott the league if something is not done about the sponsorship issues.

In fact I have heard a lot of comments about the much talked about sports bill and what corporate Ghana stands to gain when eventually passed and that its continuous delay over the years is rather pushing them away. (Tax rebate concerns).

So then what did the likes of ABC, KINAPHARMA, ONETOUCH and GLO Ghana and until recently FIRST CAPITAL PLUS BANK now CAPITAL BANK (pulled out their sponsorship deal with the GFA due to some restructuring) gain with their association with football in the country over the last fifteen years?

For me I think there are basic issues that need to be addressed alongside the sports bill debate and until those issues are frankly addressed the story will remain the same for many years and the rhythm of the beat will also be the same as well.

How Sports Sponsorship Benefits Brands:

According to business case studies in the UK, Sponsorship is not an act of charity. In fact, it must show some form of positive return on investment (ROI). Since sponsorship is a business arrangement, standard evaluative criteria should be used to establish the suitability of a proposed event in relation to the sponsor’s image and products. A sponsor can enjoy a wide range of benefits from a carefully selected sponsorship, which can:

Raise brand awareness and create preference.

Create positive PR and raise awareness of the organization as a whole.

Provide attractive content for a range of products and services.

Build brand positioning through associative imagery.

Support a sales promotion campaign.

Create internal emotional commitment to the brand.

Act as corporate hospitality that promotes good relations with clients.

Before sponsoring an activity, the sponsor must feel sure that the event/organization will be successful; has a proven track record, good prospects and generally be aligned with the sponsor's brand and business objectives. Sports sponsorship is the most common and can range from international to regional and local events.

The organization receiving the sponsorship (sponsee) stands to benefit enormously from both financial support and other forms of backing from an established partner, provided that both parties have agreed a set of common objectives to underpin the sponsorship.

I do believe that the marketing department at the GFA and most club officials are deeply aware of this and it beats my imagination as to why we continue to disrespect the brands in all their association with our league. Even recently Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom also threatened to stop his company GN BANK from sponsoring the ongoing Division One league due to hooliganism at some of the league centers.

“Social media activity and conversation is now increasingly becoming a huge part of agencies’ and sponsors’ evaluation of campaigns,” says Adam Wright, an Account Executive at a leading sport & entertainment agency.

According to Wright this is mainly due to the fact that a brand’s prestige and image is easily built or ruined in an instant with the speed at which ideas and impressions can be developed online and more and more we are seeing social media being included as a significant mechanism for analysis within sponsorship campaigns.

During my research into the successes and failure of brands in some African football leagues, I came across this publication on the South African league authored by Yomi Kazeem and Published in May 13, 2015.

I think it is very insightful and some lessons can be learnt from it, after some GHALCA officials went to South Africa a few years ago to study league management style which yielded to nothing.

Full text:

The South African league is widely regarded as one of the best in Africa and following the conclusion of yet another successful season, the rest of the continent could learn a thing or two from the South African Premier Soccer League (PSL).

Offer Value

Like most other sports in South Africa, the football league has been significantly monetized. The premier division is sponsored by ABSA, a financial services provider while the cup competitions also have notable corporate sponsorship and partnership with corporate luminaries like Nedbank and MTN being heavily involved.

The main reason corporate partnership has proven to be viable is that the South African football league offers real value to these brands. With the fans of various clubs all deeply passionate about their clubs, games are well attended with promising TV audiences also chalked up. With an audience to leverage, marketing the league has been ultimately easier but it has to be said that the organizers of the league have done incredible jobs with ensuring stadium security, minimal crowd violence and affordable ticketing. With all these in place, the South African league captures attention and eyeballs thus providing sponsor brands with an avenue to deepen relationships and immerse themselves into customers’ conversations.

Organization is vital

Unlike Nigeria where haphazard fixture lists and questionable refereeing is prevalent and in North Africa where fan violence is a saddening but reoccurring event, South Africa stands out for its impeccable organization standards.

League fixtures are properly scheduled ensuring hitch free seasons and thus securing optimal value from television rights deals which represents another major revenue stream for the PSL. It is not quite as monstrous as the figures commanded by the English Premier League but it remains an important source of revenue to keep the league profitable and plays a key role in ensuring that clubs are also well rewarded.

Kaizer Chiefs, 2015 champions, received about $836,000 for their triumph while Kano Pillars, current champions of Nigeria’s Professional Football League banked 10.2 percent of that amount -$86,000- for their title win last year. South Africa’s PSL paid out a total prize money pool of $2.4 million while Nigeria’s NPFL paid out $433,00 last year. Clearly, organization, execution and consistent branding does have its rewards.

Fan power

More than anywhere else in Africa, South African football has harvested the interest of its fans. The league organizers, as earlier pointed out, have taken steps and undergone measures to ensure that stadiums are kept violence-free and are conducive for fan attendance.

Extra care has also been taken to channel the passion of the fans to boost the league’s popularity and its standing. Perhaps the biggest indication of the strength of the passion for the South Africa PSL is the Soweto derby which truly went global in 2013. Across the Caribbean, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, the March 2013 derby was shown in 24 million households.

The game was broadcast in another 83 million households in America while other regions such as the Middle East and the United Kingdom also got a piece of the broadcast pie. Half of the spectacle of the Soweto derby is provided by the fans with the players having to do the rest.

While there are documented instances of clubs struggling to fill 2010 World Cup stadiums which radically stimulated the game in South Africa and also addressed its previous infrastructure deficit, there can be little doubts that attendances at games are improving and will continue to do so.

This part is crucial, not just for South Africa but for the rest of Africa, as gate fees are the highest component of global sports revenue and particularly within the context of Africa where the other components- media rights, merchandizing and sponsorship- are not as optimized as can be, the fans can be the lifeblood of leagues in more ways than one.

If leagues in Africa were to be rated , South Africa’s PSL, given its excellent branding and execution as well monetization, will make a good claim for first place and other league organizers across the African continent looking to improve their local leagues can borrow a few leaves from the PSL’s playbook.

Indeed the above publication clearly shows that we have a long way to go in making our league attractive and lucrative for companies to invest in it. In fact there are those who believe that the economy of Ghana is not strong enough to support the efforts of these investors especially those who may want to help the clubs.

But even those who argue on the buoyancy of the economy of this country have also failed to indicate to us at what point companies enjoyed their brands during their association with the Ghana Premier league and what has accounted for the current difficulties.

It is a sad development in this era of great commercialization in football worldwide and it so interesting that we just cannot make things transparent enough to attract sponsors for our league.

Just this year Kenyan Premier League title sponsors SportPesa were honored in the Discovery Sports Industry awards held at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. The regional most followed online betting company beat off competition from other sponsorship companies to clinch the Best African Sponsorship award for their partnership with the KPL.

Also in January this year NKANA Football Club of Zambia received US$179,000 worth of sponsorship from three corporate entities ahead of the new Super League season.

And the club launched its new 2016 kit manufactured by MAFRO Sports of Singapore, after parting ways with South Africa’s Umbro which dresses most of the teams in the Zambian Super League.

Nkana chairman Evaristo Kabila announced during the kit unveiling ceremony that his executive committee was determined to continue implementing innovative business ventures that would make the club financially viable in line with club licensing requirements.

The sponsors include headline shirt sponsors Red Metal Mining Limited of South Africa, Bayport Financial Services and Stanbic Bank.

Our FA as well as our clubs cannot pretend knowing nothing about the best practices that leads to acquiring the best sponsorships but their stubbornness in employing experienced and professional communications and marketing personnel into their management has been their biggest problem.

The only way out now is for the clubs to and to a larger extent our FA taking our league more serious than they have done in the past. We should learn to go beyond winning three points on Sundays and rather see the game as pure business.

Our constant believes in the points and the cups is the old fashioned way of doing football these days and football clubs are not winning cups in other African countries yet they are attracting the best sponsorships because they have real professionals who believe in business and transparency helping them. The one man business is not helping our football league and we need immediate change of attitude and mindset on our football.