The Premier League Board (PLB) of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) have expressed their "disappointment and displeasure" with comments made by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Hon. Nii Lantey Vanderpuije which sought to run down the quality of the Ghana Premier League (GPL).
The Sports Minister in an interview on Asempa FM reportedly said the GPL was without a sponsor because it was an unattractive brand.
However, the PLB in a lengthy press statement issued on Sunday said although it was not averse to criticism, it expected the Minister to crosscheck his facts before going public with such "unfounded" comments.
The statement admitted that Hon Vanderpuije may have been expressing his personal opinion but his claims were sharply contradicted by the facts on the ground as the GPL currently has a sponsor in international broadcaster SuperSport while the various clubs also have private sponsorship.
"What is even more disappointing is the fact that the incorrect statement comes from no less a person than the sector Minister, who is expected to promote and project the league to attract the necessary public and corporate support," the PLB lamented.
"The PLB finds it unfortunate that the sector Minister would ridicule the attractiveness of the Ghana Premier League (GPL) without giving any evidence to buttress his claim and also proceed to unjustifiably link the absence of a headline sponsor to his wrong claims of unattractiveness of the country’s top-flight league.
"Any enthusiastic follower of the Ghana Premier League will firmly disagree with the Minister's claim that the league is unappealing".
The statement went on to describe the GPL as the most attractive sporting product in the country, in terms of organisation, quality, patronage and media coverage.
"The PLB wishes to put on record for the information of the Honourable Sports Minister that, the GPL is the most attractive sporting product in the country, in terms of organisation, quality, patronage and media coverage.
"As a matter of fact over 1000 journalists applied to cover the Ghana Premier League on over 500 media platforms showing the deep public interest in the product which leads to the overwhelming media interest in the competition.
"The PLB is wondering how the Minister of Sports could describe a product which trends positively on both traditional and new media every match day as unattractive?".
The PLB said the Minister's "unfair and unfortunate comments" will go a long way in damaging the brand of the GPL further hurting the chances of getting a corporate organization to support the league.
"While the Minister is clearly wrong on the absence of a sponsor for the league, let’s also state that the absence of a sponsor for a league anywhere in the world is not the best measure of the quality or attractiveness of a competition. In the same vein, there are many factors which inform the acquisition of sports sponsorship. These factors include, but not limited to the size and performance of a country's economy".