GBC Counters GFA Claim That Greed Cost It Premier League Broadcast Rights

The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation has shot back at the Ghana Football Association (GFA) over insinuation that greedy conditionalities cost it the right to broadcast the Ghana Premier League, a deal which was given to Chines company-StarTimes.

Francisca Bannerman, Public Relations Assistant Manager of GBC today told popular online news website, Ghanaweb that the GFA deliberately skewed the facts when it claimed that the GBC had proposed an arrangement for the GFA to pay it 30% of title sponsorships that it will secure for the Ghana Premier League.

“What they put out there is not entirely the truth. When you go for a bid like that or for tournaments you have the league sponsor and broadcast sponsor. What GBC said was that if we were going to be given the nod, we suggested that if the league sponsors were interested in advertising on our channel, they can also come and whatever revenue they pay we want 30%. The 30% was for sponsors who were ready to advertise on GBC platforms. So, if they are not interested, we will not get anything”, she said.

Ms. Bannerman’s rebuttal comes ahead of another upcoming official rebuttal by the Management of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation.

Following the GBC’s first statement yesterday, accusing the GFA of discriminating against it to give premier league broadcast rights to Chinese pay-tv company, StarTimes, even though it put in a better bid, the GFA released a statement today condemning the GBC’s claims as “deliberate misinformation.”

“The GFA is shocked by the deliberate misinformation in the statement and wishes to respond with the facts…,” the spokesperson said.

According to reports, the GBC had submitted its bids late, and on top of that demanded to share title sponsorship money that the FA would secure for the Premier League.

According to the FA, in spite of the fact that GBC’s bid did not meet the criteria, its Bid Evaluation Team had met with GBC and clarified matters, making it clear that its participation was allowed as a favour from the FA.

 “It must be stated unequivocally that evaluation of bids is not only about the financials but includes all conditions, such as those GBC stated in their proposal, such as the 30% share GBC wanted on all Title Sponsorships,” the GFA stated

“It must be stated clearly that even if only financials alone were considered, the 4th bid of GBC (which was out of time) was not the bid with the highest financial consideration. Two other proposals were higher than the GBC bids but other conditions (due diligence) affected those bids,” the GFA explained.