'Only extra money will make me push my fans to watch football on TV' - Kotoko CEO

Nana Yaw Amponsah said that it is not right for teams to share TV revenue

The GFA shares the TV rights revenue equally among the 18 competing teams

Kotoko CEO wants his club and Hearts of Oak to be engaged before they can sell the product to their fans

Asante Kotoko Chief Executive Officer, Nana Yaw Amponsah, has said that he doesn’t subscribe to the equal sharing of television rights revenue in the Ghana Premier League.

The television rights revenue from StarTimes is always shared equally between the eighteen competing teams in the Ghana Premier League.

But according to Nana Yaw Amponsah, he doesn’t see the need to urge his millions of fans who do not get the opportunity to be at the stadium to watch the games on TV, when the revenue from the television viewership will be shared equally among the clubs.

He stated that he will only do that if his club will benefit more from the television rights revenue because they have the biggest fanbase in the country.

“I feel that there needs to be a proper collaboration between the clubs and the right holders [StarTimes] because for me as Asante Kotoko if all StarTimes gives me is $30,000 for the year, whether 100,00, 1 million, 2 million Kotoko fans watch [a game] on the day or not, - that’s all I get - I am not going to go out of my way to push fans who are not coming to the stadium to watch StarTimes. I don’t see how that benefits me,” Amponsah said during the African Sports Centre’s Ghana Premier League Webinar with the Johan Cruyff Institute.

Also, watch last week's episode of the Friday debate on GhanaWeb TV with Joel Eshun in the post below:



He added that there should be a mechanism to share the proceeds.

“However, if there is a mechanism to share proceeds where I know that if every match day, I am getting 200,00 people or 500,000 people to watch StarTimes and that is going to translate into revenue for the club, then I will take it upon myself to educate my fans, to push my fans to go and watch so that StarTimes gets revenue, and I get revenue.

“StarTimes and the FA need to have a relook at the model. For instance, we [Kotoko] are doing the virtual CEEK challenge, and we understand that they only allow only 25% into the stadium. We’ve looked at it, the 75% is going to waste. Okay, just take a seat and donate something, and it’s fetching us some revenue,” Amponsah said at the ASC’s Ghana Premier League Webinar with the Johan Cruyff Institute.

He then urged the broadcast holders to engage the two biggest clubs in the country, Accra Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko with a special package in order for the two teams to help promote the television patronage of the games on TV.

“So, the right holders need to engage the clubs, especially Hearts and Kotoko, with the numbers and ensure that there is some kind of arrangement that makes us want to push our fans to watch and subscribe to their channels.

“Otherwise, they’re not going to make the return on investment they require. Because I don’t see why TV money is to be shared, it’s a controversial topic but the TV Rights money cannot be shared the same across the board,” he concluded. Read Full Story