On 4 October, GFA President Kurt Okraku appeared before Parliament’s Youth and Sports Committee to call for the repeal of Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) rules that bar alcoholic beverage companies from sponsoring sports in Ghana.
Okraku said the FDA’s restrictions denied sports organisations significant financial support while international leagues continued to benefit from deals with major alcohol brands. He cited a proposed partnership between Guinness Ghana Limited and the GFA that could have generated more than $5 million annually for the Ghana Premier League but collapsed after the FDA refused approval.
“We were approached by Guinness Ghana Limited, wanting to invest heavily in the Ghana Premier League. We did whatever we had to do. We had a series of meetings. At the end, FDA said no. The deal was, if I’m not mistaken, over $5 million a year. We lost it,” Okraku said.
He urged the committee to lead efforts to remove the provision that gives the FDA authority to decide whether alcohol companies can sponsor sporting activities, arguing that lifting the ban could unlock additional funding for sports development across the country.
“Mr Chairman, if there’s one thing that you can do to help sports and football, that would be for you to lead the charge to completely take out that provision that gives the power to FDA to decide on what they can use their resources to support in respect to sports or football,” he added.
