It is the last day of January and Oduro Sarfo, an Executive Council member of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), has just ‘confirmed’ StarTimes return as broadcaster of the Ghana Premier League (GPL).
“The last time I spoke about StarTimes was four weeks ago. StarTimes will come in February. The GFA doesn’t have any contract with a media house at the moment. Since we had no TV rights and our matches were not going public, we decided to engage certain companies to handle it for a specific time and even put it on our GFA app. But that is now gone,” Oduro Sarfo told Guide Radio.
“If by February, StarTimes comes on board, everything ceases, and nobody will have access to the rights anymore. They will take over completely,” he added.
And so January went by, and with it, football fans hoped all the broadcast challenges.
Firebrand football administrator, Nana Oduro Sarfo
However, eight weeks later, StarTimes has not returned and AFA Sports continues to produce and broadcast live matches.
So what happened?
Did Oduro Sarfo lie? No.
Fresh terms
JoySports checks confirm that there was indeed an agreement between the Chinese company and the Ghana Football Association, for a two-year deal.
After the deal was agreed, the Executive Council was duly notified. It is on the back of this notification, that Nana Oduro Sarfo, made his public declaration.
That agreement was preceded and made possible by a compromise by both parties to renegotiate the terms of the previous contract.
At the time the original contract was signed, the exchange rate was GH₵5 to $1.
However, in the years that followed, the exchange rate spiraled out of control. Even though the then vice president Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia claimed that the dollar had been arrested, the American currency is not one to be caged given its legendary cussedness.
And so it is that in the final year of the contract, the exchange rate was GH₵17 to $1.
StarTimes were selling their decoders and subscriptions in Ghanaian cedi but had to pay GPL clubs (through the GFA) in dollar terms. It did not take rocket science to know that they were going to make losses.
The excellent pair of Sitsofe Atsrim (left) and Nana Darkwa Gyasi (right) were lead commentators in the StarTimes broadcast of the league
Perhaps they did not expect that within four years, they would, through no fault of theirs, have to pay more than three times what the exchange rate was at the time of the contract.
But what was done was done and in an ultimate act of magnanimity, the GFA agreed to renegotiated terms for the contract sum yet to be paid.
February setbacks
The agreement for a new deal was subject to payment of all outstanding debts (to be paid with the renegotiated rate).
However, since the pact in January, StarTimes has suddenly developed cold feet.
They have not raised any issues about the fresh terms. Nothing.
They have simply gone quiet.
The GFA, however, is still waiting for that bank email that says ***** amount has been credited to account number ******* from its Chinese partners.
What now?
It has been eight match days since the new deal was supposed to start.
The current season is only eight match weeks from concluding.
The understanding is that, even if StarTimes pays the outstanding debt, the Chinese company would rather commence broadcasting from the start of the next season. It is a position the GFA would not be opposed to.
In a perfect world, this season’s GPL matches, including this shot from Young Apostles versus Asante Kotoko, would have been on StarTimes
Was this the only way?
Could the GFA not have contracted a more experienced broadcast company to produce the league matches while it ironed out the kinks with StarTimes? No.
The first is a question of money. The GFA could not afford the cost of hiring a company that would produce the equivalent of what StarTimes was offering; a minimum of four live matches every weekend in high-quality resolution.
iMax Media, the company that has been producing and broadcasting the Ghana Premier League matches for StarTimes, could have been approached to produce the matches for the GFA.
It is also the same company that has been producing AFCON Qualifiers for CAF in Ghana.
However, iMax Media would have viewed the offer as a betrayal of their partners (StarTimes) in a time of dispute.
All of that is water under the bridge now.
If StarTimes honors the terms of the new agreement, the GPL will be on a screen near you and in high-quality resolution from September 2025.
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