Kurt Okraku | GFA President - Image by GFA
Ghana Football Association (GFA) President Kurt Okraku has told Parliament the association lost a sponsorship deal with Guinness Ghana worth more than $5m a year after the countries Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) refused to approve it, and has asked lawmakers to remove the regulator’s power to block alcohol sponsorship in sports.
Speaking before Parliament’s Select Committee on Youth and Sports on Wednesday, November 4, Okraku said the brewer had approached the GFA about a significant investment in the Ghana Premier League.
“We were approached by Guinness Ghana Limited wanting to invest heavily in the Ghana Premier League. We did whatever we had to do. We had a series of meetings. At the end, FDA said no. The deal was, if I’m not mistaken, over $5 million a year. We lost it,” he said.
Okraku did not say when the talks took place. He asked the committee to lead efforts to scrap the provision that requires FDA approval for sponsorships involving alcoholic beverage companies.
“That provision that allows FDA to say yes or no to sponsorship still exists within our books. If there’s one thing that you can do to help sports and football, that would be for you to lead the charge to completely take out that provision,” Okraku added.
The rule sits in the FDA’s guidelines on food advertising, which require any promotion linking an alcoholic drink to a sporting activity to be submitted for the authority’s approval. The same guidelines restrict alcohol advertising on radio and television to between 8pm and 6am, and bar well-known personalities, including sports figures, from endorsing alcoholic drinks. The FDA has defended its approach to alcohol marketing on public health grounds, particularly exposure among minors.
A long-running campaign
At the GFA’s Congress in August 2025, he said the restrictions had cost Ghanaian football millions of cedis and proposed a framework for responsible alcohol sponsorship, developed with the FDA, the sports ministry, civil society and health groups.
The disclosure puts a figure on a debate that has largely been argued in principle. The rule is an approval requirement rather than an outright ban, so the FDA could change its position without new legislation, through its own guidelines. Okraku’s appeal to Parliament suggests the GFA does not expect that to happen.
Guinness Ghana Breweries came under new ownership in 2025, when Diageo sold its 80.4% stake to France’s Castel Group for $81m. Diageo retained the Guinness brand and still leads its marketing in Ghana with Castel, so the approach to the league came under the new ownership structure.
In the Ghanian Premier League, where clubs have struggled to attract major sponsors, the question is whether lawmakers weigh a recurring eight-figure-cedi commitment (approximately, depending on the exchange rate) against the public health case the FDA has made for its rules. Elsewhere on the continent, brewers remain among football’s most prominent backers, giving the GFA a ready comparison as it makes its argument to lawmakers.
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