JANUARY 15, 2020

DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
Sports
DAILY HERITAGE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2020
15
We accept FA’s Baba
Yara ban – Kotoko
KUMASI ASANTE Kotoko
say they accept the decision
by the GFA to ban it from
the use of the Baba Yara Stadium.
“We accept the FA’s decision. As a
club, we do not support fan hooliganism,”
PRO of the club, Kennedy Boakye Ansah,
told Francis Abban on the ‘Morning Starr’
yesterday.
The ban comes after a supporter was
shot in the eye after fan agitation following
a defeat of Kotoko by Berekum
Chelsea at Baba Yara stadium last Sunday.
A statement announcing the ban said:
“Article 14 (2) of the GFA Premier
League Regulations states that: ‘the GFA
may order the closure of any league centre/venue
where the safety of clubs,
match officials and/or spectators cannot
be guaranteed”.
“The GFA Prosecutor shall prefer
charges against any person/party found to
have breached any provision of the GFA
Regulations or Disciplinary Code.”
GFA ban on Kotoko
The Porcupine Warriors have been
• Kennedy Boakye Ansah, PRO of Asante Kotoko
banned temporarily from using the Baba
Yara Stadium for their home matches in
the Ghana Premier League following Sunday's
misconduct by fans.
The disgruntled followers of the club
went berserk and wanted to physically assault
referee Charles Bulu after the 1-0 defeat
by Berekum Chelsea.
The melee escalated when a policeman
fired rubber bullets - to disperse the
crowd one of which hit the eye of an innocent
fan.
A Ghana FA statement read: "Following
incidents at the Baba Yara Stadium
during Asante Kotoko's Premier League
match with Berekum Chelsea on Sunday,
the GFA Executive Council has decided
to temporarily ban Asante Kotoko from
playing its matches at the Baba Yara
Sports Stadium pending the adjudication
of the matter by the GFA Disciplinary
Committee.
"The GFA Executive Council at its
meeting on Monday, January 13, 2020, decided
to trigger the provision of Article
14(2) of the GFA Premier League Regulations.
"Article 14 (2) of the GFA Premier
League Regulations states that: "the GFA
may order the closure of any league centre/venue
where the safety of clubs,
match officials and/or spectators cannot
be guaranteed."
"The GFA Prosecutor shall prefer
charges against any person/party found to
have breached any provision of the GFA
Regulations or Disciplinary Code."
It was our decision to cancel StarTimes
10-year deal — Akofa Banson
STARTIMES GHANA Head of
Marketing, Akofa Banson, has
revealed that the decision to cancel
the 10-year contract signed
between the company and the
Ghana Football Association
(GFA) was at the request of her
company.
According to her, the absence
of football on the local scene
after the Anas exposé leading to
the government banning all football
activities made them incur
huge losses.
Speaking in an interview on
Asempa FM monitored by the
DAILY HERITAGE on why
the initial contract signed in 2016
was cancelled, she said, “Our old
contract signed between the
GFA for 10 years was truncated
because of the long absence of
football in the country after the
Anas exposé”.
“We were losing money and
kept asking the GFA when football
would return and we were
not getting any response. So we
decided that the contract was not
benefitting us and we both had a
mutual agreement to cancel the
contract”.
A press release from the Chinese
pay-TV operators following
the cancellation of the earlier
deal read, “StarTimes signed a
10-year contract as the official
media broadcaster of the Ghana
Football Association in 2016.
“With this strategic partnership
agreement, StarTimes acquired
all media rights of Ghana
Football properties for 10 years.
“StarTimes has invested over
2 million US dollars in Ghana
Football with hardly any tangible
returns so far. Despite all our investments
as a company, our
goals and targets were not met
to ensure the smooth running of
our business.
“We have suffered huge
losses as expected revenue from
advertisers who had pledged to
spend on our platform could not
be realised and the investments
made into the game could not be
recouped due to the abrupt truncation
of the league.
“We had signed deals with advertisers
and since there was no
platform to advertise their products
due to the absence of football,
we decided to cancel the
deal,” the statement read.
StarTimes has since been
awarded the television rights of
the Ghana Premier League and
FA Cup for the next five seasons
worth a little over USD $5 million.
• Akofa Banson, Head of Marketing at StarTimes Ghana