One of my fond memories of the 1988 Seoul Olympics in Korea was an inscription I saw on a colourful T-shirt, worn by an attractive African- American lady at the Games Village. It read “Try, if you don’t succeed, lower your standards”. I regard this as quite a profound message and it has tickled me since then. I would like to recommend this advice to the Ghana Football Association in their new search for TV sponsorship for the premier league. I may be wrong but my suspicion is that the league is overrated.

There is no doubt that the sponsorship package offered by the now cash strapped Gateway Broadcasting Service was extremely generous, if you consider the quality of Ghana’s premier league. The way the local matches were screened alongside those in Europe brought into focus a very sharp contrast. The European league usually depicted a packed stadium featuring healthy looking footballers who could excite the thick crowd with methodical play, banging in goals at will as compared with the almost empty stadiums over here with players seemingly forgetting that goals are the tonic of football.

In view of this sharp contrast, I have always been wondering what could be so attractive to advertisers to support such a venture and considering the so called financial global crisis, it is not surprising that Gateway Broadcasting Service has been compelled to fold up.

This development is definitely going to affect the finances of the Ghana Football Association and I would quickly suggest that they make use of local resources to recoup some of their financial deficits.

Ghana Television and Metro Television are two outfits that have shown over the years that they are capable of football sponsorships however modest the profits may be and the Football Association must feel free to do business with them. If Ghana TV and Metro TV are capable of screening some selected English premiership matches and a lot of international matches including all matches involving Ghana’s national teams they should be capable of sourcing a healthy package for the coverage of Ghana’s premier league.

It is obvious that whatever package the two local stations would offer cannot match Gateway’s deal but as they say: half a loaf is better than none. It is accepted by all that sports thrive on publicity and such a popular pastime like the national football league needs wide exposure to attract the fans and in these modern times Television is the answer.

No stadium in the world can accommodate the entire population of a town if everybody wants to be at the stadium. We should therefore discard this old mentality that people won’t pay to watch a game if it is shown live on TV. The CAN 2008 proved the fallacy of this assertion when people were prepared to buy tickets at any price to watch the Black Stars despite the live TV coverage. Which brings us back to the fact people will pay to watch quality matches featuring quality players that will make them enjoy the thrills of football.

The premier league of Ghana needs quality players and it is left to all those who prefer to be in football management to find means of letting the budding young stars sustain interest in the domestic league, so that in future we could have the Ransford Oseis, Ayews, Adiyiahs,Jonathan Mensahs and Awakos featuring in the league This would really raise the stakes and we could go back to the days when a Hearts- Bofoakwa match was sell out featuring the Kwasi Owusus, Dan Owusus, for Bofoakwa and the Mohammed Polos, the Anas Seidus , and the Ofei Ansahs for Hearts.

I am not oblivious of the fact that we are in the moon age era of player exodus but I am sure if proper measures are taken and young budding players are properly groomed and transferred abroad in an open and transparent manner, it would eventually benefit both the players and the nation so that good talents are not wasted on the cold benches of European leagues.

The national football league in Ghana need a new lease of life and the time is now as the production line continues to produce a chain of talented potentials