Public Relations Officer of Asante Kotoko, Kennedy Boakye Ansah, admits that the club is feeling the financial strain of the absence of regular football activity in Ghana due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Ghana Premier League has been on a break since March 15 when the President, Nana Akufo Addo, announced a ban on all public gatherings in the wake of the spread of the pandemic.
Since most football clubs in Ghana rake in income from gate proceeds and transfers, the absence of football means clubs are struggling to survive and Boakye Ansah says Kotoko is no different.
However, he remains hopeful that the situation will be resolved in coming months.
“Kotoko, like any other Ghanaian club, has been feeling the strain for some time especially when our major source of revenue is from the gates.
We are a bit lucky to have some sponsorship but even that can only take care of about 30 to 40 percent of our monthly expenditure. So we have to find other means of mobilising funds to run the club.
We have had some great support from the Executive Chairman, Dr. Kwame Kyei. In these times, it is not easy for all the clubs but we will survive.
The situation is under control but the only thing we want is to overcome the current pandemic so our football comes back.”
The strain Kotoko is feeling in terms of finance has also been heightened by the fact that their main sponsors, MTN, has suspended its monthly financial obligations to the club.
Under the terms of a sponsorship agreement between the entities, MTN is supposed to give the club an amount of GHS 70,000 but due to the Coronavirus pandemic, businesses have also been put under some stress and MTN has asked for a freeze of their duties to Kotoko.