Kickoff (Cape Town)
21 November 2008
The Ghana League season will kick-off this weekend without an official title sponsor after the PLB stripped Onetouch of that right.
The Professional League Board chairman Welbeck Abra-Apiah told Peace FM this morning that Onetouch's inability to come up with 40 percent of the 2.5million GHC for the sponsorship money is the reason for the cancellation of the deal.
The inability of the title sponsor to advance 40 percent of the sponsorship fee, Abra-Appiah says has robbed the clubs of the 150 000 dollars per club they were expecting for the season.
It could also have an effect on the television coverage.
The sponsorship fee went up because the national mobile phone operator had bought the rights to highlights of the game on terrestrial television.
"We had several meetings and decided that once they have been unable to pay, we must take them off. It's unfortunate but we gave them enough opportunities to make this work," Abrah-Appiah said.
Onetouch have yet to comment on the issue but KickOffGhana.com is aware the company was deeply unhappy with what they considered the PLB's poor organisation and running of the league last season and what they said was poor returns in terms of exposure for their huge investment.
The withdrawal of Onetouch is likely to spark a mad rush by the country's other mobile telephone operators who have turned the Ghana football scene into their playing field in a battle for subscribers.
For the clubs the latest set back is crushing financially after Coca Cola also withdrew their sponsorship of the competition.
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