Brazil 2014: How GFA missed chance to market local league
The World Cup is the world’s biggest marketing platform. This is because the attention of the whole world is always shifted to the international event every four years.
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The World Cup has become an important business tool for any brand and it is every marketer’s dream to capitalise on the event.
However, the Ghana Football Association (GFA) failed to capitalise on the tournament this year to promote the local league, which is currently on its knees due to mismanagement and lack of direction from those in-charge.
The local league has been suffering from lack of sponsorship for some time now. The just ended premier league was played without a sponsor in the first round until the First Capital Plus (FCP) Bank came to its aid in the second round.
As a result of this lack of sponsorship, the clubs have faced a lot of financial constraints leaving individuals to finance some of these clubs with their own resources.
The World Cup, therefore, presented an opportunity for the country and the GFA in particular to have showcased some of its local talents to the world and football investors.
That could have come about by co-opting some of the players in the local league into the Black Stars squad to tell the world and corporate Ghana in particular how strong the league is and the potential it holds.
However, as we all witnessed, the association together with Coach Kwesi Appiah decided to name just one local player in the 23 man-squad that represented the country.
This will certainly make the league unattractive as it clearly paints a picture of the lack of good materials in the league and no company or investor would like to invest in a league that lacks quality materials.
The President of the GFA, Mr Kwasi Nyantakyi, and his administration over the years have received a barrage of criticism for prioritising the Black Stars over the local league and yet they failed to capitalise on the opportunity provided them to market the local league through the national team.
GFA’s spokesperson, Ibrahim Sannie Daara, publicly asked companies to invest in the local league, assuring that the league would guarantee more exposure for potential sponsors than the Black Stars.
But how was Sannie Daara expecting the companies to invest their monies when the GFA itself has no confidence in the quality of players in the league and the league as a whole?
Local players in haste to play outside
There have always been concerns from club owners and local soccer enthusiasts about the declining nature of the Ghanaian league because all the players seem to be in a haste to play abroad.
For one to be able to address these concerns, it is necessary to look at why these local players are denied what they deserve.
Players in the local league due to lack of investment earn meager salaries and allowances and cannot even dream of representing the national team at major tournaments. So, what then is the motivation for them to stay and play in Ghana when their sweat and toil is not adequately rewarded?
Prior to Kwesi Appiah announcing his 23-man squad for the tournament in Brazil, there were calls for the inclusion of at least three players from the local Black Stars team after their impressive performance at the CHAN tournament.
However, the Head of the Technical Committee at the GFA, Mr Ben Koufie, shamefully stated that none of the players in the local Black Stars team deserved a place in the senior national team. That was very disheartening, especially coming from a person of his caliber.
It was, therefore, not surprising that these local footballers keep making international moves mainly for financial reasons.
The way forward
For the local league to attract the needed number of sponsors and corporate Ghana’s attention, it is advisable for the GFA to plan a full campaign, showing full commitment to the local league by reserving at least three spots in the national team for local talents in any tournament.
The Marketing Department of the GFA has to also adopt a new posture towards potential sponsors. That posture should include an effort to visit corporate institutions to convince them to sponsor the league and not wait for them to approach first.
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The local league also needs to be restructured and rebranded to make it more attractive because there is no way the GFA can attract sponsors if the league remains in its current state.