FEATURE: The Ghana Premier League and its Branding

As one of the most important part of marketing, packaging and publicity remain as fundamental as the items to be sold.

A well packaged goods or publicized products will easily hit the market faster than quality products sold in the black market.

Any institution that wants to boost its marketing department will need to recruit people who can brand the factory name and package its products better than before, if they are to compete in this competitive field of ours.

Have we branded our league well enough to deserve quality sponsorship? Is the league well packaged to attract investment or retain its stellar names? How many Ghanaian players have swapped the FCPPL for either SPL or the Congolese topflight?

Well, Solomon Asante, Gladson Awako, Mohammed Awal, Edwin Gyimah, Fatu Dauda and veteran John Painstil all preferred the PSL (South African Premier league) or Â Ã‚ T. P Mazembe to the Ghanaian league.

To compare any African league to the Barclays Premier league will be suicidal, but comparing its organizational chart for easier analysis might be a bit fair.

The football calendar for 2015/16 season in the English topflight will be announced very soon, though the current season is yet to reach its full trot.

Fixtures are released at least 3 months to kickoff whiles publicity starts immediately after the season ends. All 5 ties in English football play simultaneously, whiles their well organized FA cup remained the oldest cup competition in the world.

They don’t go lobbying for sponsors, as they prefer the branding and packaging to writing proposal for sponsorships. Barclays replaced Carling with a whopping 300 million euro for the sponsorship, whiles DSTV, Sky sports and Al-Jazeera are all queuing up for the chance to air live matches from British football. My big question is, who is supposed to do these same things in Ghana football? Can’t we brand the league to attract fans to our stadia? Why will Solomon Asante leave Berekum Chelsea, run by a multibillionaire in Nana Kwame to play in DR Congo? I guess the organization of the league played a key role, though the love for some dollars might have initiated it.

From Kinapharma to Glo, to First Capital Plus, our sponsoring parties can at best be described as advertisers at best. What kind of sponsorship were the local clubs getting from Glo?

Had the league been well branded to sell glo as a brand name, each player in the league could have been given souvenirs of glo including SIM cards, mobile phones, T- shirts and stadia bill boards. What if Kinapharma had given free medication to the playing staff? Like a computer, the league answers garbage in garbage out.

The league has lost its credibility to the extent that, it cannot keep its top scorer and best player for just one more season. Is the PLB’s organization of the league centered on just drawing of fixtures and appointment of match officials? Have they gotten a competent marketing team in place to package the league like how the CR7 brand has been packaged?

Our league deserved better sponsorship, but only after it has been managed well to attract the corporate world.

With 228 days separating the last league match and the opening day matches for the coming season, you can imagine why it is extremely cruel for me to blame the sponsors. No level headed economist will invest on perishable goods or buy products that will not last longer. Will you sponsor a league usually associated with protest cases, bad pitches, low patronage and no key players to sell your products?

Imagine the FCPPL with Sadat Bukari and Dominic Adiyiah at heart of lions, Shaibu Yakubu and Alhaji Saani at Ashgold, Eric Kobina Bekoe and Jordan Opoku with the reigning champions, whiles the phobian duo of Mahatma Otoo and Prince of goals were still in the local league.

If the airline companies were not queuing for chances to be associated with the league, at least fans will have reasons to go to stadium instead of watching Parma against Sampdoria. Can you blame the fans like some are saying? I think they are 100% correct for preferring the European leagues to the local football. Just remind yourself of the recent shambolic top 4 tournament or the current special knock out tournament. Hearts of pulling out or kotoko demanding this and that. It’s a shame we can only look from afar.

Problems raised without solutions to me are not worth reading at best. How can we as media men, league organizers, corporate Ghana, local fans and the FA officials arrest this downward turn in fortunes of the local leagues?

What if the league organizers put in place player of the month award, best eleven for the week and other mini monthly awards on fortnight basis?

Imagine a Friday night league preview on GTV with players from each clubs learning to speak on set?

Not only will they vibe up the interest of the local fan, it will also market the sponsor to watching world. Aside these awards, the PLB or the FA can organize educational programs for the local footballers aside their football careers.

A university course for a premier player will just be enough for him to stay. A night school or midweek lessons for the playing staff might just enough of a reason to stay in the league. Had such courses been put in place for a player like Mahatma Otoo, I doubt he will swap FCPPL for a Norwegian league.

The desire to complete the program (which may last 3 or 4 years) will force the players to stay and in turn help the league. On the part of the fans, they can be attracted to the stadium if other entertainment programmes are imbibed into the league. Imagine Sarkodie, Bisa Kdei and Shata Walle hitting the grounds together in a match between Accra Hearts of oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko?

No PRO will be needed to market the said match. It will hit the target faster than expected, as some people will come just to watch the musicians and at the same time see their local heroes. Attendance will be boosted astronomically.

They are numerous reasons why people go to stadia on match days aside the 90 minutes of football actions.

As poorly branded as our league however, one can only congratulate the sponsoring companies for risking into such ventures.

If the local fans are to change their mentality about the league, then the powers at the top will need to effect some of the possible solutions proposed in this peace.

If our colonial masters are the British, what prevents us from emulating their league structure? Is somebody out there reading? Only good branding and packaging will attract corporate world and sustain quality players on the league.

Long live the local football. Better organization from our administrators.

By Saani Abacha

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @saani_abacha