In recent weeks, concerns have been raised about the alleged exorbitant deductions which government through National Sports Authority charges during matchdays in either Ghana Premier League or Caf inter-club competitions.
As a result, reports even emerged last week that there was a scuffle over pitch panels between Kotoko’s top hierarchy and NSA officials when the Porcupine Warriors hosted debutants Accra Lions in matchday seventeen of Ghana Premier League at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium.
According to NSA, Kotoko are supposed to pay for each of the pitch panels they display at the stadium which have their sponsors on them or the NSA will rather have their own pitch panels.
As a result, there was a meeting between the two parties held on Tuesday to amicably solve the impasse and NSA has further issued a statement to explain how they undergo their works.
“The National Sports Authority (NSA) apart from its mandate to develop sports, promote sporting competitions in and outside Ghana, registering and licensing of sports associations and federations (47 in number now), as enshrined in Sports Act, 2016 (Act 934) and Legislative Instrument (Regulation) L.I. 1988, also manages and maintains all state-owned sporting facilities across the country including Accra Sports Stadium, Cape Coast Sports Stadium, Kumasi Baba Yara Sports Stadium, Sekondi-Takoradi Essipong Stadium, Tamale Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium and Sunyani Coronation Sports Stadium,” a statement by NSA read.
“There are also many satellite stadia, scores of Astroturf playing fields, and hockey stadia. These are made available to clubs, federations and individuals for sports and non-sports activities with specified conditions.
“The cost of renting a major stadium with seating capacity above twenty thousand per day is GHS 100,000 as captured in Fees and Charges of Finance Ministry and approved by Parliament. However, no club in the premier league in Ghana is able to rent at this fee and therefore, the NSA has resorted to collaborate with the clubs to organize games and share match proceeds based on sharing formula (Function Statement) approved by Finance Ministry. This is captured in contracts signed between NSA and clubs using these stadia as their home.
“Kotoko doesn’t rent Baba Yara Sports Stadium, Accra Hearts of Oak doesn’t rent Accra Sports Stadium etc; and if they were, pitch preparation and cleaning of seats ahead of games would have been their responsibility but the NSA plays this role to support the clubs.
“Remember, it takes almost GHS 10,000 to ready the facility for a match including cost of pitch preparation, sanitation, electricity, water and personnel.
“When you look at the contract NSA signed with the Premier clubs, none of them chose the renting option. Fact! All the clubs chose the second option of organising matches together to share the proceeds from the match. Fact!!
“If you pay attention to the function statement of games at Baba Yara, or Accra Sports stadium, the NSA with its 15% doesn’t meet the cost of stadium preparation, and equally the clubs don’t really benefit either, in my opinion.
“For example, the NSA made just GHS 102 when King Faisal played RTU at the Baba Yara on February 05, 2022. The authority got just GHS 4,333 from gross proceeds of GHS 69, 690 when Kotoko played Olympics at Baba Yara on January 28, 2022.
“This is because of the numerous deductions including VAT (18.5%), deductions to the GFA, PLB, GHALCA, Red Cross, Ambulance, Security, etc.
“On the pitch panel issue, the clubs per the agreement with the NSA are to pay 30% of proceeds from the ads to the NSA but the NSA, led by ever generous Prof. Twumasi hasn’t enforced it because he knows that will over burden the clubs.
“The issue of paying between 200-500cds per panel rented (manual current but soon to have digital pitch panel installed) is a suggestion that came up during a meeting yesterday but the amount is yet to be agreed. Other suggestions included the old approach where pitch panels are shared between NSA and clubs for their own advertisements, or renting entire stadium by the clubs and keeping all proceeds to themselves apart from taxes.
“As at now, clubs don’t disclose how much they earn from advertisement in the various stadia which is supposed to be part of the match revenue. The GFA has already implemented the sharing of pitch panel advertisement proceeds emanating from national team matches with NSA at 30:70 ratio (30% for NSA & 70% for GFA).
“Sports organization at elite or professional level is indeed capital intensive, and the earlier Ghana sports begins to run with commercial intent rather than as humanitarian venture, the better our sports industry would be as prevailing in Europe and elsewhere,” the statement added.