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General Secretary of the Ghana Football Association, Prosper Harrison Addo, is amazed by calls from Asante Kotoko for a review of revenue sharing among premiership clubs under the Startimes TV deal.
Currently, all premier league clubs, including Hearts of Oak and Kotoko, are to receive the same amount of money ($30,000) even though the two clubs command the highest number of fans, in accordance with a collective sale agreement regarding the deal involving the Ghana Football Association and Chinese pay-TV outfit, StarTimes.
Chief Executive Officer of Asante Kotoko, Nana Yaw Amponsah during his presentation at the African Sports Centre’s (ASC) Ghana Premier League Webinar with the Johan Cruyff Institute, disagree with the decision for all 18 premier league clubs to receive the same amount of revenue generated from the TV rights.
Nana Yaw Amponsah said: “I feel that there needs to be a proper collaboration between the clubs and the right holders [StarTimes] because for me as Asante Kotoko if all StarTimes gives me is $30,000 for the year, whether 100,00, 1 million, 2 million Kotoko fans watch [a game] on the day or not, – that’s all I get – I am not going to go out of my way to push fans who are not coming to the stadium to watch StarTimes. I don’t see how that benefits me.
“However, if there is a mechanism to share proceeds where I know that if every match day, I am getting 200,00 people or 500,000 people to watch StarTimes and that is going to translate into revenue for the club, then I will take it upon myself to educate my fans, to push my fans to go and watch so that StarTimes gets revenue, and I get revenue.”
Reacting to submissions of the Asante Kotoko CEO on Luv Fm’s Kickoff Show, the GFA General Secretary said it was a collective decision from the clubs to share the TV rights equality.
He believes the FA cannot be held responsible.
“When the Startimes deal was signed, at the time GFA called all the clubs to a meeting. We had the proposals as to sharing and we (GFA) brought it to the fore, the clubs discussed around the table and eventually it was the clubs who brought this current sharing formula even to the displeasure of the FA.
“So currently the $ 30,000.00 each that the clubs are receiving was brought by the clubs and they said that take it or leave it the FA must take it. So the decision we are using today was the club’s decision and not the FA’s decision,” said Prosper Harrison Addo.
However, the GFA General Secretary is advising to meet and review current arrangements and take a decision for approval by the GFA.
“If somebody wants it [TV revenue share] revisited, amongst the clubs they can discuss and bring it to the FA. But I must stress that what we wanted the clubs to get the clubs did not take that formula and then this is the formula the 18 clubs agreed to go with and Kotoko was part of it.
“All the clubs voted that this is what they wanted. So we are rather implementing what the clubs put on the table. So it is not the FA’s decision at all it is the clubs decision,” the FA scribe emphasized.
Source: myJoy
