Ghana Football Association (GFA) Marketing Director, Jamil Maraby, has drawn a striking comparison between the Ghana Premier League and the Black Stars, describing the national team as the FA’s flagship product and a far easier brand to promote.
His comments highlight the ongoing efforts by the GFA to elevate the profile of domestic football and bridge the gap between the national team’s overwhelming popularity and the league’s potential growth.
Speaking exclusively to Channel One Sports, Maraby acknowledged the immense challenge of marketing Ghana’s domestic league, contrasting it with the undeniable appeal of the Black Stars. His remarks come in the wake of Ghana’s emphatic 5-0 victory over Chad, a match that saw the 40,000-capacity stadium filled to the brim, with thousands of eager fans left stranded outside.
“It’s complex ,the Premier league has many actors ,18 clubs and then many other affiliate .”
The Referees, the administrators ,stadium owners so it difficult to get everyone together. So that once you go out to pledge a certain benefit to a partner ,you need all these actors to accept and agree and that’s the problem .
When it comes to the national team it’s the FA. So once the FA says if you give me X amount ,I will give you this . We normally manage it ,and we retain our partners.
With the Premier league or the other leagues if you say you will give them X amount ,you have 18 people to monitor . To ensure that 18 of the teams do give the benefit that we said we will give .
You have the stadium owners as well ,because most of the clubs don’t own the stadia. So it also difficult for the benefit to be given as promised or as agreed on. So these are the factors that makes the Premier league or division one league more difficult to sell than the national team .it’s purely to that.
While the Black Stars consistently draw massive crowds and sponsorship interest, the Ghana Premier League struggles with low attendance, limited broadcast reach, and financial constraints. Despite efforts to improve the league’s branding and commercial value, the gap remains wide.
The Marketing department of the Ghana Football Association Still maintains they are in discussion with a potential Television network to have the Tv right of the league.
