ABSTRACT
In Ghana the speed with which development is being achieved is constantly under scrutiny. This developmental process is mainly rooted in donor-funded programs undertaken by the government. It is essential that the nation finds self-sustaining alternatives to support these programs and in time do away with reliance on foreign aid.
The purpose of this study was to investigate if football qualifies as one of such alternatives. The study posed the question of whether or not football currently contributes substantially to economic development. The study then assessed the implications of this contribution for economic development in the long term.
The study was conducted by gathering opinions of members of a Supporters‟ group/organization in Ghana using questionnaires. The study was also based on data on match revenues and attendances at home league matches of 14 teams played over a 17-week period. Finally, the study also relied on expert analysis and opinions of credible and established individuals on the Ghanaian football scene.
The study found that, based on the variables evaluated, football contributes to economic development but not substantially. However, it was conclusive that football‟s current contribution has the potential to be massively substantial in the long run if given the right environment to thrive in.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………. 1
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE…………………………………………… 7
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY………………………………………………….. 16
CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATION……………………………. 22
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION….. 35
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………… 41
APPENDIX A – QUESTIONNAIRE…………………………………………………….. 43
APPENDIX B – QUESTIONS FOR EXPERT INTERVIEWS………………………… 44
APPENDIX C – DATA FROM GLO PREMIER LEAGUE MATCH DAYS………….. 42
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Overview
Background to the project
The huge remuneration and cult status that presently accompany employment in major football leagues across the world would have been highly inconceivable in the early years that the origins of the sport are traced to. “The very earliest form of the game for which there is scientific evidence was an exercise from a military manual dating back to the second and third centuries BC in China.” (FIFA, 2010) In fact there is no record of actions pertaining to commercialization and professionalization football till 1879 in the United Kingdom (U.K.). A hundred and thirty years on and the sport has undergone radical evolution to become one of the most potent industries of the overall global economy contributing an average of three percent (3%) of world trade as at the beginning of the decade (Halicioglu, 2006).
Ghanaian policy makers reiterate a common vision to attain sustainable levels of national development through economic growth. On the ground however, the rate at which this growth is proceeding is both sporadic and tardy and requires further catalysis to give the much desired development any chance to materialize. The domestic economy continues to revolve around agriculture, which accounts for about 35% of GDP and employs about 55% of the work force, mainly small landholders (CIA, 2010). Along with agriculture there are a few other sectors on which the Ghanaian economy
depends. This characteristic makes the economy volatile, risky and frangible. Enter the football industry.
If the aggregate of the components that make up the Ghanaian economy is represented by a portfolio of investments aimed at reaping development as return, then the investment principle of diversification urges a further addition of contributors. This principle puts forward that, all things being equal the aggregate risk of a portfolio reduces with an increasing number of components. This surely prompts a questioning of my choice of the football industry given the numerous options available. To elucidate, I neither make an attempt to declare football and its development thereof as the panacea to Ghana‟s slow economic development nor do I propose to christen it as the superlative way to develop the country and its economy. However my less than subtle bias towards the school of unbalanced growth theory and the reality of scarcity of resources available for development leads me to propose that emphasis should be concentrated on the few existent and potential
„leading‟ industries. According to Krishna and Perez (2004), pp 338:
“Investment by a firm can, through forward linkages, motivate investment by another firm…through backward linkages, one firm’s investment can motivate another firm…to invest. Instead of industrializing a large number of sectors…what [is] needed [is] the industrialization of the ‘leading’ sectors. Then, through backward and forward linkages these sectors would spark the industrialization of the rest of the economy.”
For me, like most Ghanaians, football induces avid interest which has developed over time into a strong understanding and fondness for the game. The ubiquity of the sport is evinced by the fact that an estimated 5 out of every 100 Ghanaians play football professionally or non-professionally (FIFA, 2010) – with an even larger percentage of the population as spectators. The country is masked and draped in the national colors whenever any of the national teams plays- friendly or competitive- and the country radiates with a collage of colors anytime the two bigger clubs in the country, Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko, go head-to-head1. Surely such passion almost certainly guarantees the existence of a market, a market that can propel the industry, an industry that can possibly induce development and drag other sections of the economy along with it. So instead of answering the question “why football?” the study will seek to give the reader reason to ask him/herself, “why not football?”
Structure of the Ghanaian Football Industry
In Ghana, football is played by both genders on different tiers ranging from amateur, through semi-professional right up to professional football. League and cup (knock out) championships are organized at national (first division, dubbed the Glo Premier League) and regional levels (second and third divisions) for men whilst there exists a league championship for women at senior level. Acting as props for these „higher‟ levels of the sport for men are the under twelve (U-12), under fourteen (U-14) and under seventeen (U-17)
1 Official colors of Accra Hearts of Oak are white, yellow red and blue. Official colors of Kumasi Asante Kotoko are red and white.
which are usually collectively referred to as the „grass root‟ level. It is at this level that players are groomed in expectancy of plying their trades in the senior professional leagues. Over the course of its U-shaped life span (in terms of levels of development and quality) this tier of football has mainly served as a placenta – constantly supplying the higher levels with the needed talented youth as personnel.
Of these different strata of the football structure, it is senior men‟s football that has made football the most popular game in the world. In Ghana, the main competitions that have been found to be of national interest are International competitions involving the senior national team, the Black Stars, league and cup competitions involving locally established football clubs.
This thesis‟ evaluations however are based on the Ghanaian first division league. The Ghanaian first division title is competed for by 16 teams over a 9-month period. There is no rule in the Ghana Football Association regulations that demands that a club is formed by the community in which it operates. As a matter of fact, privately owned clubs have become quite the norm in the last few years. Given this though, communities rally round the teams within irrespective of the ownership structure. As such they expect to see some benefits of supporting that team, whether tangible or intangible.
Like many other leagues around the world, this division now provides a major platform for advertisers to promulgate their services and products to the wide audience that the league reaches. This forms a part of what is
increasingly becoming a corporate structure of football that is manifesting itself in Ghana. In what began as a recommendation by the GFA in the 1990‟s, the Association now only incorporates clubs that are “registered as companies either limited by shares or guarantee to the Association.” (GFA, 2008)
