The Chairman of the Marketing and Sponsorship Committee of Ghana’s 2014 World Cup campaign, Joel Nettey has expressed fears that the Black Stars may never receive sponsorship from cooperate Ghana following the several drama that characterized their campaign.
Appearing before the Justice Senyo Dzamefe Commission of Inquiry, Mr. Nettey stated that, the Black Stars currently does not appeal to corporate Ghana and would be difficult for any entity to grant them sponsorship.
He added that, with all the issues that revolved in Brazil and its several effects, no sponsor will wish to be associated with the Black Stars brand in the future.
He stressed that, 41 corporate sponsors assisted to realize over Ghc4.5 million to support the Black Stars ahead of the World Cup campaign.
According to him, the entire process from participation, money recovery and supporters’ involvement and so on did not go down well, making the Black Stars brand unattractive.
He further stated that, some negative reportage in the media does not encourage the private sector to be associated with the Black Stars.
But Justice Dzamefe gave the assurance that the Commission would set up the right systems and procedures to resurrect the image of the Black Stars in the eyes of corporate Ghana.
He added that, the Commission would as part of its core mandate ensure that the Black Stars brand gains better grounds in the country.
The chairman stressed that they would also ensure that the Black Stars becomes a worthy product for the whole of Africa and that would certainly bring sponsors on board.
Very soon, he assured, the Black Stars would bring much revenue into the country while much would not be spent by government on the team.
With proper systems, structures and procedures to ensure transparency in place, sponsors would double their sponsorship to the Black Stars, he said.
Answering a question from the Commission as to whether he believed without the bailout they could have airlifted the supporters to the tournament, Mr. Nettey replied “Yes my lord, without the bailout from the Chief of Staff, we could have taken a number of supporters to Brazil.”
Mr. Nettey, who is the current president of the Advertising Association of Ghana (AAG), told the Commission that the decision as to the number of supporters to be flown to Brazil rested on the amount of monies they could raise as a committee.
“We raised a total Ghc4.5 million and out of this we could have flown at least 200 supporters to Brazil; but towards the end of our work, we received information that an extra number of supporters would be added to our number, and that information threw out our objectives.
According to him, the committee then revealed to the Minister that if they had to take more, then he must find them additional income of the extra amount that would be needed to carry along the additional supporters.
After this, the committee put up a list of companies it was having some difficulties with in terms of soliciting sponsorship from in order to enable him deal directly with them.
Mr. Nettey however disagreed with an earlier assertion made by Fred Darko before the Commission that they were stabbed in the back by MTN and that their “Go Rio” which competed with the “Fanatic Text and Win Promotion” of the World Cup Committee led to the latter’s failure.
He explained that, MTN rather did the committee a favour by giving them a short code to use for their promotions since every telecommunication outfit could take advantage of the World Cup to do their own promotions.
He added that, it is unfair to say MTN has disappointed the nation as they were not obliged to exclude themselves from such World Cup promotions.
According to him, MTN contributed massively towards the promotion and deserved to be given recognition for their impact instead of the condemnation.
Also appearing before the Commission was the Chairman for Grounds, Events and Logistics Committee, Horace Ankrah, who ensured the selection of three caterers for the campaign.
He stated that, after a rigorous selection process, Amber Foods, Monees Catering and Kenkey Boutique were selected for the project.
It was revealed that Kenkey Boutique on its budget allocated Ghc 34 for three square meals per day for supporters, but the committees report captured $35 for the same number of meals per day.
Justice Dzamefe, therefore, engaged Mr. Ankrah in a heated argument in an attempt to ascertain how the cedis budget by Kenkey boutique was changed into dollars by the committee.