Veteran Football Administrator Alhaji Karim Grusah has called for a boycott of the Ghana Premier League if Asante Kotoko and Hearts of Oak are given a bigger share of the headline sponsorship deal.
According to him, the two aforementioned clubs are no better than the 16 others and, therefore, the sponsorship money must be shared equally.
On Wednesday, the Ghana Football Association (GFA) unveiled betPawa as the new headline sponsor of the Ghana Premier League.
The GFA and the sports betting company have signed a three-year contract worth $6 million to be disbursed across the period.
This means the Ghanaian topflight will get $2 million from betPawa in each of the years that the company will be sponsoring the league.
“The FA cannot distribute the money anyhow they want. Who are they [Hearts and Kotoko]?” he said on Angel FM.
“Teams that don’t even know administration. Are they premier league teams or super premier division teams?
“If so, they should play their own league and let other clubs play theirs too. They don’t deserve more money than anyone.”
#BringBackTheLove? 🤔#ThisIsTheLove ❣️#GPL | #betPawaGPL pic.twitter.com/IxjLqDraZf
— 🇬🇭 betPawa Premier League (@GhanaLeague) August 3, 2022
Drawn to the fact that Hearts and Kotoko have bigger followings, the King Faisal owner said: “Which numbers? The way I manage my team, Kotoko and Hearts can’t. I’m going to check from the FA if such a proposal has been made.
“They can’t say that nonsense to us. No team players with 12 players on the pitch. Hearts and Kotoko don’t even own stadiums. If they think they are big clubs, they are big clubs in their homes only.
“I call on all the clubs not to agree to such an arrangement, otherwise let’s leave the league for those two clubs to play.”
The Ghana Premier League last had a headline sponsor in 2018 after a $10 million deal was struck with Zylofon Cash.
Betpawa Ghana Premier League 🇬🇭⚽️
📌 Betpawa is headline sponsor of @GhanaLeague, investing $6m into our football for 3 years.
📌 Part of this will go directly to our Clubs, Players as team match-winning bonuses, Media & Marketing, and the Betpawa football pitch in Prampram. pic.twitter.com/H7hiO05Sm9
— Kurt Edwin Simeon-Okraku (@kurtokraku) August 3, 2022
However, the five-year deal was ended abruptly and the league has been without a title sponsor in the last three years.
At the unveiling of the betPawa sponsorship deal on Wednesday, GFA boss Kurt Okraku commended the betting company for coming on board.
Meanwhile, the 2022/23 Ghana Premier League season will be launched on September 2, 2022, along with the fixture list.
