Following the publication of this piece on the Ghana page of WorldCupBlog, its subsequent pulling down and the issues arising as previously discussed, Ghanasoccernet published its own statement Monday morning.
The tone and language used is quite...well, you judge for yourself. But I expected nothing less. The original press release from Ghanasoccernet can be found on their site here.
However, this is the full piece, reproduced, with my post-script below it.
I have highlighted and underlined the section that refers to me.
Please take a dictionary before reading the write-up. You will need it. Promise.
Cheers,
Gary.
***
Press Release: Ghanasoccernet to take legal action against Opoku
Over the past few days, Ghanasoccernet.com has been subjected to virulent defamation, outright lies and hostility from Christopher Opoku on various media platforms without any provocation.
The management of Ghanasoccernet has decided to take legal action against Opoku and the conga-line of me-too careerists who helped to spread his lies, jealousy and hatred.
This action is meant to set the records straight and for him to pay the damages he wreaked on the Ghanasoccernet.com brand and image.
Our attention was drawn to an article in last Friday’s edition of the ‘Graphic Sports’ titled : “Milovan Rajevac: inside story of how Ghana coach quit Black Stars” which has also been published elsewhere on the worldwide web.
Our respected friends at Graphic Sports have offered to retract the story with our rejoinder on Tuesday.
We will take a similar action against a me-too careerist who repeated the article verbatim for a UK blog. The blog have since pulled it down and issued a groveling apology over the false and damaging article. [emphasis mine. Please note: no groveling apology was issued by anyone from WCB, the UK blog]
We are alarmed by the false and defamatory references made in the article about our website, its ownership, its leadership and even how we source our news!
It is absolutely shocking and disgraceful for Opoku to emphatically state that because we break all the big news on Ghana football because we are funded by Virtus International!
As if that was not bad enough, he went on to lie that we own Afrikansoccernet.com.
We want to state the following facts:
1. We were not set up by Virtus International, we have not received any funding or any support in any form from Virtus International.
2. Virtus International has NEVER been involved in the setting up of our website and or its running.
3. We also don’t own Afrikansoccernet.com.
4. We have been breaking all the big news on Ghana football since 2006 when we started when Virtus never even dreamt of coming to Ghana.
We started running this website late 2006 and Emmanuel Adebayor of Manchester City performed our official launch on 24th December 2007.
We work extremely hard both night and day to bring all the news on Ghana football and all of its players both at home and abroad to our cherished readers and friends.
That is why we are able to bring all the breaking news on Ghana football and God willing we will continue to be THE news source on Ghana football for the world’s media, the newspapers, websites, TV and radio stations in Ghana.
Opoku’s warped thinking doesn’t even bring him to the understanding that when we brought all the breaking news and exclusives on Michael Essien, John Mensah, Asamoah Gyan Sulley Muntari, Kwadwo Asamoah, Richard Kingson and many others we were not funded by their agent Fabian Pivateau.
In his world, bringing breaking all the news on Dede Ayew, Rahim Ayew, Jordan Ayew and Abedi Pele himself surely means we are funded by the ‘Maestro’.
For Christopher Opoku, bringing news on Milovan Rajevac and the likes of Prince Tagoe and Dominic Adiyiah means we are funded by their agents Virtus International.
What about when we broke the news on Stephen Appiah signing for Bologna and Cesena even before the clubs and his personal website reported? Does it mean we are funded by his agent Frank Trimbolli?
While we continued to nurture our news sources by bringing balanced breaking football news on Ghana, Opoku tore himself down with his lopsided ‘investigations’ which have on numerous occasions brought him ridicule and trouble. Now he struts the Ghana sports media stage like a peacock on heat, convincing himself he is a major player.
Unsurprisingly some strange failed coaches masquerading as journalists tucked to the wind of traducing our name.
They wanted to rock the Ghanasoccernet.com boat not to scuttle it. But on this occasion Opoku and cohorts have bitten more than they can chew. They will pay.
If Opoku has taken total leave of his senses and he will be brought back to reality by the truth at the law courts.
For those who have tucked to the wind, it is a mess of their own making. They have handcuffed themselves to Opoku’s coat-tails are now about to throw away the key.
The mills of Ghanaian justice grind slowly but they grind exceeding small.
This is not a threat, it is a promise.
Editor,
Ghanasoccernet.com
***
As democracy demands, facts are presented for you to pass your own judgement. I still maintain that as far as I am concerned, there was nothing malicious about the piece in question.
It's shocking how this issue has gained such prominence. The insistence on not being rational is to blame, really.
The 'Inside Story' article in question states facts as a journalist has dug up. Perhaps I'm being blinded by my own sense of judgement but if you feel strongly about the article's inappropriateness, please feel free to let me know in the comments section.
Showing posts with label ghanasoccernet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ghanasoccernet. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Milovan Rajevac: inside story of how Ghana coach quit Black Stars.
This piece was first published online on Thursday, September 9, 2010 on the following page ( http://ghana.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2010/milovan-rajevac-inside-story-of-how-ghana-coach-quit-black-stars.html ).
As you can see it has been pulled down from that page because a party mentioned in this piece felt hard done by and issued legal threats against me and the owners of the page where it was first published.
However, this is my personal page. And I doubt if I will pull it down, or receive any legalese...
As far as I am concerned there is nothing malicious about this piece. It states facts as a journalist has dug up. Perhaps I'm being blinded by my own sense of judgement but if you feel strongly about the article's inappropriateness, please feel free to let me know in the comments section.
The following is a re-publication of the article.
Cheers,
Gary Al-Smith
***
Christopher Opoku sews together a colourful tapestry of the story of Ghana’s relationship with Milovan Rajevac, who has now left the team after guiding it to the last eight in South Africa.
So another era is gone with the exit of Ghana’s head coach, Milovan Rajevac. Contractual disagreements, procrastination plus a break down in trust were factors that ultimately led to his exit and now, for the first time in over two years, another battle royale for the position has already begun.
This piece will attempt to give a clear picture into the events that resulted in the Serbian coach’s decision to leave Ghana for a lucrative job with one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest clubs, Al-Ahli Jeddah.
As you will no doubt be aware, Milovan Rajevac was one of the coaches managed by football management agency, Virtus International, who brokered the deal to get him the Ghana job in August 2008. I use the word ‘was’ because what you are about to read will probably explain why he might no longer be on their books.
The football agency is managed by football agent Goran Milovanovic, who clearly saw the potential in Ghanaian talents and had indeed signed a number of them on the books of Virtus before the Rajevac deal was sealed.
As you may well know, a football agent’s role is to manage either players or managers/coaches, see to their welfare as per employment and obviously take a cut out of the client’s earnings and that is why these days, it is the agents who broker deals on behalf of their clients. Milo’s deal with the Ghana Football Association [GFA] clearly was a boost to Virtus because, through the national team, the Black Stars, some of the players signed up could get opportunities at national level and by so doing, increase their sell-on value.
Also Milo would have been given a brief: to study some national players and recommend them for recruitment by the agency. That is why, after the likes of Samuel Inkoom and Emmanuel Agyeman-Badu signed on for the agency, the widely held perception was that Virtus was influencing Milo’s squad selections, a perception strongly denied by the agency on the grounds that famed French football agent, Fabien Piveteau [profile is in French] had more players in the Black Stars squad than Virtus, including the likes of Michael Essien and John Mensah.
It was clear however that the marriage between Virtus International and Milo Rajevac was a happy one over the two year period. His achievements with the Black Stars over this period served to, at certain points, make the arguments about the football agency’s influence on the team irrelevant because, getting the Black Stars to two continental finals and a World Cup quarterfinal clearly showed that he was doing a good job.
His preference for younger players ultimately proved inspired and if there is one thing Milo did for Ghana, he shattered the aura of untouchability surrounding certain Ghana players and in so doing, brought a lot of competition for places in the team. Gradually, in spite of the fact that Daniel Agyei, Lee Addy, Stephen Ahorlu, Prince Tagoe, Yaw Antwi and recently John Boye and Jonathan Mensah are all on the books of Virtus International, results showed that it did not matter too much.
Also, Virtus International invested in the creation of one of Ghana’s most popular and creible football sites, ghanasoccernet.com which delighted fans and pundits from far and wide with up-to-the minute details about national players, some of which were players on the books of Virtus. The Chief Executive of ghanasoccernet.com and afrikansoccernet.com, another website for African football news, is Benedict Papa Yaw Sarpong, who is the Ghana representative for Virtus International.
Soon, as I have already mentioned, the website became hugely popular and was almost always ahead of the rest, giving exclusive news about Ghana football, with specific reference to the Black Stars. So after the World Cup in South Africa, when there was news about the possibility of Milo Rajevac signing a contract renewal with the GFA, ghanasoccernet.com became the place to go to for any news on the deal. Eventually, on 30th August, 2010, the website published a story headlined, ‘Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac finally signs new deal’.
To tell you the truth, I was delighted because I think Milo has been good for the team and his staying on, would only have benefitted the team. The story went on to reveal that in spite of some other offers, including one from Al –Ahli Jeddah, the Serbian coach had decided to stay with Ghana and had indeed signed the contract. My joy was eventually smashed when the Ghana Football Association came out to deny the story. So, the first question you might be asking yourself, is, what actually happened?
Well, after some investigations were conducted, the findings are as follows:
■ A 4-year contract was discussed, negotiated and agreed by the GFA, Milo and crucially Goran Milovanovic
■ A memorandum of understanding was either signed, or close to being signed by Milovan Rajevac.
■ The contract was sent to the Ministry of Youth and Sports for ratification, but because certain government elements objected to Milo staying on, the ratification dragged.
■ In that time frame, Al –Ahli Jeddah doubled their offer for Milovan Rajevac and when his contract expired on 17th August, he decided to examine his options
■ Apparently, Milo began to feel that Goran, and by extension, Virtus International were going to get a a huge financial slice of the new contract since they were his managers.
■ Milo apparently told top GFA Officials that he felt that ‘he was being fleeced’ by Virtus International in the deal
Add all the above-mentioned issues up, and as ex-international Mohammed Polo put it, Ghana was sitting on a time bomb, which eventually began to detonate when news broke that Milo had been to Saudi Arabia to sign a deal. What we know now was that communication lines were open between Milo and Al Ahli Jeddah before the Ghana game against Swaziland and indeed, some form of agreement was arrived at.
That explains why the Serbian coach was able to describe the rumours of his trip to Saudi Arabia as nonsense, but he clearly stunned the GFA officials later that night, after Ghana’s 3-0 win over Swaziland, by telling them that due to problems with Goran, he needed a week to take a decision. So to some extent, the news that the GFA had given him a week’s ultimatum to decide was not a clear representation of events, because that was when Milo told them that ‘he was being fleeced’.
Milo thus went behind the back of Virtus and left for Saudi Arabia to finish negotiations over the deal. A clearly frustrated and angry Goran began to speak to the Ghana media, blasting Milo for taking a decision that did not have his say-so, and also accusing him of betraying Ghanaians. But in business terms, because Virtus are not entitled to anything substantial from the Al–Ahli Jeddah deal, financially, Goran had lost out because apart from the healthy financial slice he would have enjoyed had Milo signed the Ghana deal, it was a major blow to the master plan of recruiting more Ghanaian players on the books of Virtus because the influence on the national team, if any, is now totally out of the window.
As I said earlier, I am unhappy at the turn of events and I believe the GFA are in a tight corner now. They now have to meet to decide whether Kwasi Appiah [assistant under Rajevac] will handle the team in a caretaker capacity and when I enquired, I was reliably informed that that decision had not been taken. For now, Milo has signed a deal worth a minimum of $110,000 a month with other perks and we have to say well done to him, but it is now time to move on.
The future
Already, an Arab football agent called Mohammed Habashy is talking to one of my colleagues in a bid to get one of his clients, Heron Ricardo Ferreira, to coach the Black Stars and indeed I have had the privilege of sighting Perreira’s CV. Unfortunately, despite being offered a cut in the deal to bring Ferreira to Ghana, my colleague is not interested because he supports the principle of a local coach.
Milo’s departure will no doubt sadden the players but this could mean a return to the national team for Inter Milan midfielder Sulley Muntari, as well as Eric Bekoe [plays for Petrojet in Egypt] when he recovers fully from his injury.
One thing that I am wondering is that if you recall I was told by Virtus a few months back that when Bekoe broke his deal with them, he was liable to pay 1 million Euros for breach of contract, but they decided to let him off, so the question is whether the same courtesies will be extended to Milo, whose relationship with Goran at this stage looks irretrievably damaged.
Of course, others might speculate that perhaps Goran’s public show of frustration in the Ghana media could end up being a cover up for being fully aware of the Saudi deal but for now, I am dealing with the facts available.
Already, Ratomir Djukovic [who handled Ghana at Germany 2006] has thrown his hat into the ring to succeed Milo, but as to whether he is now prepared to deal with the media, which was one of the reasons he cited for not renewing his contract after the 2006 World Cup remains to be seen. Also others seem to think that this is the right time for former France captain, Marcel Desailly to take over the team.
Personally, I think we can do no worse than a coaching duo of David Duncan and Maxwell Konadu to take over the team and crucially given all the support given to Milo Rajevac, but my biggest fear is that it could turn out to be nothing but a pipe dream because of preconceived notions about local coaches.
About the author
Christopher Opoku – get him on Facebook – is the Head of Sports at Metro TV in Ghana. This piece was published in yesterday’s edition [September 10, 2010] of the 'Graphic Sports' newspaper - the country's biggest selling sports paper.
As you can see it has been pulled down from that page because a party mentioned in this piece felt hard done by and issued legal threats against me and the owners of the page where it was first published.
However, this is my personal page. And I doubt if I will pull it down, or receive any legalese...
As far as I am concerned there is nothing malicious about this piece. It states facts as a journalist has dug up. Perhaps I'm being blinded by my own sense of judgement but if you feel strongly about the article's inappropriateness, please feel free to let me know in the comments section.
The following is a re-publication of the article.
Cheers,
Gary Al-Smith
***
Christopher Opoku sews together a colourful tapestry of the story of Ghana’s relationship with Milovan Rajevac, who has now left the team after guiding it to the last eight in South Africa.
So another era is gone with the exit of Ghana’s head coach, Milovan Rajevac. Contractual disagreements, procrastination plus a break down in trust were factors that ultimately led to his exit and now, for the first time in over two years, another battle royale for the position has already begun.
This piece will attempt to give a clear picture into the events that resulted in the Serbian coach’s decision to leave Ghana for a lucrative job with one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest clubs, Al-Ahli Jeddah.
As you will no doubt be aware, Milovan Rajevac was one of the coaches managed by football management agency, Virtus International, who brokered the deal to get him the Ghana job in August 2008. I use the word ‘was’ because what you are about to read will probably explain why he might no longer be on their books.
The football agency is managed by football agent Goran Milovanovic, who clearly saw the potential in Ghanaian talents and had indeed signed a number of them on the books of Virtus before the Rajevac deal was sealed.
As you may well know, a football agent’s role is to manage either players or managers/coaches, see to their welfare as per employment and obviously take a cut out of the client’s earnings and that is why these days, it is the agents who broker deals on behalf of their clients. Milo’s deal with the Ghana Football Association [GFA] clearly was a boost to Virtus because, through the national team, the Black Stars, some of the players signed up could get opportunities at national level and by so doing, increase their sell-on value.
Also Milo would have been given a brief: to study some national players and recommend them for recruitment by the agency. That is why, after the likes of Samuel Inkoom and Emmanuel Agyeman-Badu signed on for the agency, the widely held perception was that Virtus was influencing Milo’s squad selections, a perception strongly denied by the agency on the grounds that famed French football agent, Fabien Piveteau [profile is in French] had more players in the Black Stars squad than Virtus, including the likes of Michael Essien and John Mensah.
It was clear however that the marriage between Virtus International and Milo Rajevac was a happy one over the two year period. His achievements with the Black Stars over this period served to, at certain points, make the arguments about the football agency’s influence on the team irrelevant because, getting the Black Stars to two continental finals and a World Cup quarterfinal clearly showed that he was doing a good job.
His preference for younger players ultimately proved inspired and if there is one thing Milo did for Ghana, he shattered the aura of untouchability surrounding certain Ghana players and in so doing, brought a lot of competition for places in the team. Gradually, in spite of the fact that Daniel Agyei, Lee Addy, Stephen Ahorlu, Prince Tagoe, Yaw Antwi and recently John Boye and Jonathan Mensah are all on the books of Virtus International, results showed that it did not matter too much.
Also, Virtus International invested in the creation of one of Ghana’s most popular and creible football sites, ghanasoccernet.com which delighted fans and pundits from far and wide with up-to-the minute details about national players, some of which were players on the books of Virtus. The Chief Executive of ghanasoccernet.com and afrikansoccernet.com, another website for African football news, is Benedict Papa Yaw Sarpong, who is the Ghana representative for Virtus International.
Soon, as I have already mentioned, the website became hugely popular and was almost always ahead of the rest, giving exclusive news about Ghana football, with specific reference to the Black Stars. So after the World Cup in South Africa, when there was news about the possibility of Milo Rajevac signing a contract renewal with the GFA, ghanasoccernet.com became the place to go to for any news on the deal. Eventually, on 30th August, 2010, the website published a story headlined, ‘Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac finally signs new deal’.
To tell you the truth, I was delighted because I think Milo has been good for the team and his staying on, would only have benefitted the team. The story went on to reveal that in spite of some other offers, including one from Al –Ahli Jeddah, the Serbian coach had decided to stay with Ghana and had indeed signed the contract. My joy was eventually smashed when the Ghana Football Association came out to deny the story. So, the first question you might be asking yourself, is, what actually happened?
Well, after some investigations were conducted, the findings are as follows:
■ A 4-year contract was discussed, negotiated and agreed by the GFA, Milo and crucially Goran Milovanovic
■ A memorandum of understanding was either signed, or close to being signed by Milovan Rajevac.
■ The contract was sent to the Ministry of Youth and Sports for ratification, but because certain government elements objected to Milo staying on, the ratification dragged.
■ In that time frame, Al –Ahli Jeddah doubled their offer for Milovan Rajevac and when his contract expired on 17th August, he decided to examine his options
■ Apparently, Milo began to feel that Goran, and by extension, Virtus International were going to get a a huge financial slice of the new contract since they were his managers.
■ Milo apparently told top GFA Officials that he felt that ‘he was being fleeced’ by Virtus International in the deal
Add all the above-mentioned issues up, and as ex-international Mohammed Polo put it, Ghana was sitting on a time bomb, which eventually began to detonate when news broke that Milo had been to Saudi Arabia to sign a deal. What we know now was that communication lines were open between Milo and Al Ahli Jeddah before the Ghana game against Swaziland and indeed, some form of agreement was arrived at.
That explains why the Serbian coach was able to describe the rumours of his trip to Saudi Arabia as nonsense, but he clearly stunned the GFA officials later that night, after Ghana’s 3-0 win over Swaziland, by telling them that due to problems with Goran, he needed a week to take a decision. So to some extent, the news that the GFA had given him a week’s ultimatum to decide was not a clear representation of events, because that was when Milo told them that ‘he was being fleeced’.
Milo thus went behind the back of Virtus and left for Saudi Arabia to finish negotiations over the deal. A clearly frustrated and angry Goran began to speak to the Ghana media, blasting Milo for taking a decision that did not have his say-so, and also accusing him of betraying Ghanaians. But in business terms, because Virtus are not entitled to anything substantial from the Al–Ahli Jeddah deal, financially, Goran had lost out because apart from the healthy financial slice he would have enjoyed had Milo signed the Ghana deal, it was a major blow to the master plan of recruiting more Ghanaian players on the books of Virtus because the influence on the national team, if any, is now totally out of the window.
As I said earlier, I am unhappy at the turn of events and I believe the GFA are in a tight corner now. They now have to meet to decide whether Kwasi Appiah [assistant under Rajevac] will handle the team in a caretaker capacity and when I enquired, I was reliably informed that that decision had not been taken. For now, Milo has signed a deal worth a minimum of $110,000 a month with other perks and we have to say well done to him, but it is now time to move on.
The future
Already, an Arab football agent called Mohammed Habashy is talking to one of my colleagues in a bid to get one of his clients, Heron Ricardo Ferreira, to coach the Black Stars and indeed I have had the privilege of sighting Perreira’s CV. Unfortunately, despite being offered a cut in the deal to bring Ferreira to Ghana, my colleague is not interested because he supports the principle of a local coach.
Milo’s departure will no doubt sadden the players but this could mean a return to the national team for Inter Milan midfielder Sulley Muntari, as well as Eric Bekoe [plays for Petrojet in Egypt] when he recovers fully from his injury.
One thing that I am wondering is that if you recall I was told by Virtus a few months back that when Bekoe broke his deal with them, he was liable to pay 1 million Euros for breach of contract, but they decided to let him off, so the question is whether the same courtesies will be extended to Milo, whose relationship with Goran at this stage looks irretrievably damaged.
Of course, others might speculate that perhaps Goran’s public show of frustration in the Ghana media could end up being a cover up for being fully aware of the Saudi deal but for now, I am dealing with the facts available.
Already, Ratomir Djukovic [who handled Ghana at Germany 2006] has thrown his hat into the ring to succeed Milo, but as to whether he is now prepared to deal with the media, which was one of the reasons he cited for not renewing his contract after the 2006 World Cup remains to be seen. Also others seem to think that this is the right time for former France captain, Marcel Desailly to take over the team.
Personally, I think we can do no worse than a coaching duo of David Duncan and Maxwell Konadu to take over the team and crucially given all the support given to Milo Rajevac, but my biggest fear is that it could turn out to be nothing but a pipe dream because of preconceived notions about local coaches.
About the author
Christopher Opoku – get him on Facebook – is the Head of Sports at Metro TV in Ghana. This piece was published in yesterday’s edition [September 10, 2010] of the 'Graphic Sports' newspaper - the country's biggest selling sports paper.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Gunning for Ghana’s internet glory
Gary looks at what Ghana’s sports-minded business entities are missing online.
Every day, thousands of Ghanaians around the world trawl the World Wide Web for information about their favourite sports teams, businesses and entities based in Ghana. Since most of these entities are football clubs, most of the allusions in this feature would be in the language of football.
If Ghana is serious about foreign direct investments (FDIs) then we should look the way of improved conduct on sport-related businesses on the internet. Entrepreneurs should not also think that there is no money to be made in this era of the credit crunch, for we now know that in 2008 Ghana’s economy surged by over seven percent. This, at a time, when the world was supposed to have been nose-diving faster than Talal Fattal’s Sporting Mirren did in the last Glo Premier League.
Followed by thousands here in Ghana and owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, Chelsea FC won its first major trophy of the new season, not on the pitch, but by beating Premier League rivals Manchester United to the inaugural SportBusiness Ultimate Sports Websites Award 2009.
The awards were introduced by SportBusiness Group to recognize the increasingly important role that an effective online presence plays in all areas of sport and commerce. These range from attracting and engaging fans to delivering profile for sponsors and cost-effective revenue generation through ticket and merchandise sales.
Chelsea won the overall Award by a single point.
Was there a Ghanaian sport website? Are you kidding me? Of course not.
As at June 2009, internet penetration in Ghana was estimated by the International Telecommunications Union to be a mere 4.2% as compared to 8.7% in Africa. And according to the same statistics, only 997,000 of Ghana’s estimated 23,887,812 population have access to the internet. The next national census would soon be due, and then I can revise my population figures accordingly.
Very soon the country with its sub-regional neighbours would be interconnected with undersea fibre optic cables. This development is expected to increase internet connectivity and access in Ghana. That begs the question of how Ghana’s sports business entities can tap into this watering hole.
What Ghana’s sports business websites need
Internet marketing is now a major, multi-billion dollar industry. Yet the Ghanaian sports industry is on the leeward side of the money makers.
The spending on search engine marketing (the fees advertisers pay to have their adverts shown on search results and websites) is now measured in the billions of dollars rather than millions. As it stands, only few Ghana-based or Ghana-centered football related businesses have fully functioning, monetized and competitive websites that attract heavy web traffic.
I stress on fully functioning, monetized and competitive because many Ghana-based football entities have websites that have either been disconnected or are dormant. Notable examples include the sites of the teams that placed first to fourth in the last Glo Premier League. Giants like Kumasi Asante Kotoko, Accra Hearts of Oak, Heart of Lions and King Faisal as well as emerging forces like Tema Youth and Bechem Chelsea all have inconsistent websites.
In the past, popular websites like soccerghana.com, allghanasoccer.com and Yaw Ampofo-Ankrah’s myghanafootball.com have all gone extinct due to various factors. At the heart of these are the lack of fresh and relevant content, the non-appealing styles of these sites and/or the myopic ambitions of the proprietors.
The business-minded person may set up a website with the aim of making some money. Yet, some have expressed an ingrained fear of building transaction-based football websites that can sell football or sports related materials to the world.
Despite these concerns, study upon study shows that many internet consumers now have the confidence to transact purchases using the web. And, in any case, with the recent introduction of the Verified by Visa (VbV) system by GTBank and a few other issuer banks to reduce the incidence of fraud and later disputes, one cannot give excuses for not doing business over the web from Ghana.
A modern, well presented website is now expected for any serious sports business and organization. A sports business website should explain the products and services offered or, in this case, it should tell the user what the organization is about and what it has to offer in as little time as possible because internet users are not known for their patience. The site should also provide background and general contact information about the sport business.
A website can also allow online transactions of team kits, memorabilia and any other things peculiar to the entity that owns it. A more accessible sports-related website can make the surfing experience better for everyone.
What our sports businesses are missing
The recent SportBusiness Awards I spoke of earlier concentrated on six categories: Content, Community, Style, Monetization, Partnership Activation and Attracting New Fans. Accumulated scores across the categories determined the overall winner of the Ultimate Sports Website Award 2009.
Content
Manchester United’s site (manutd.com) took the honors in this category. A critical look at this site shows that there is a constant effort to ‘create news’ such that even when nothing seems to be happening, the site has fresh ideas at all times. Readers may be skeptical about the potential for similar success in Ghana. That is unfounded.
If anyone cares to listen to the radio stations on an average day in Accra, it is clear that there is so much happening out there that the media houses sometimes complain of having too little staff to do all of it. Player registration information, league scores and tables, charts, historical records, important notices, opinion polls, player statistics and game-by-game information, management decisions, annual and fiscal reports and a whole gamut of miscellaneous data can be put on a standard sport business website.
Community
In internet jargon, a community can be loosely explained as a collection of enthusiasts of a subject or event. In this case, I mean the ability of a sports website to attract like-minded people to stay and discuss matters of mutual interest with fellow aficionados while making money on the time the users spend.
Speaking of Ghanaian football websites, I am hard pressed to find any communities that are more vibrant than those of Ghanasoccernet.com, SportsinGhana.com and Ghanaweb.com. These are user-friendly, click-and-go portals that have good timely content that can be used by all and sundry (although more can be done to improve the grammatical correctness of both websites).
The impact of such websites on the football or sports fan is obvious: they would always recommend such sites to friends and return for more. One other site that is also doing well is ghana.worldcupblog.org.
Style
The style of a sports or football websites needs not be garish and over-decorated. Simple and straightforward is the way to go. Chelsea FC also won the Club/Team Awards in the Style department of the SportBusiness awards and you may log on to their page (chelseafc.com) to see why.
The site caters for the different levels of fan-bases that the Chelsea FC team attracts. Navigation is fluid, not convoluted and winding. This means that whether a fan works with the British Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street or operates an internet café at Mamprobi in Accra, one could find that the site adapts to your tastes. Crucially, the site is compatible with several platforms.
In Ghana, devices such as mobile phones are in widespread use for web-surfing but less so for Personal Digital Aassistants (PDAs) and in-car browsers. Yet for even the technologies that are commonly used to access the internet in the country, we find that many of our sports related websites are inaccessible to these browsing technologies.
Websites should be flexible enough to display on devices such as those I’ve mentioned, while degrading gracefully to work with older technologies such as the good old Pentium 2 computer at that rundown café behind my grandma’s home at North Kaneshie. As many web surfers are embracing broadband internet access, the numerous web designers we have all over town need to remember that a considerable portion of their clients' audience still use slow internet connections.
As I speak, Ghana Telecom’s figures show that a large chunk of their subscribers use less than 125kb download connections. Unduly delaying access to the content of a website can put visitors off and businesses risk losing custom as a result.
Monetization
For every sport business entity, this is one of the most important aspects of having a website. In basic terms, website monetization is the ability to use your site to make money online. And anyone who has followed Deloitte’s yearly ‘Football Money League’ would not be surprised that Manchester United won the monetization category of the SportBusiness website awards.
Manchester United’s site makes use of carefully researched data on internet users’ behavior patterns. The site has cleverly placed adverts in strategic locations and makes sure that it is virtually impossible to miss the colourful and relevant adverts they place all around the site. Conversely, the problem Ghana’s sport-related sites have is that the adverts placed are either not relevant to the visiting users or even if they were, are not strategically placed so that they can be found with ease.
As it is now, I am quite impressed with the use of such current ad-placement techniques by the popular Ghana-centered websites, Myjoyonline and especially Ghanaweb.
Unlike just a year ago, these websites have made sure that users cannot ignore looking at (and more importantly, clicking) the various ads displayed all around the sites. According to Alexa, the web analytics site monitor, Myjoyonline has a daily page viewership of 65,585 and an estimated Daily Advert Revenue of $199.
In addition, Alexa says the website is worth an estimated $145,400 and is the tenth most visited website in Ghana. These are not bad figures at all and also go a long way to show that if run professionally, a strong internet presence by Ghana’s sports businesses could be very profitable.
Other Ghanaian-based businesses must build competitive sites that can make money otherwise the venture of building a website is sadly, wasted. Having a great website without having monetary returns is like weeding a farm daily without ever returning with any food.
Partnership Activation
Every business has partners and associates of one sort or another. In the world of sport business, the increasing nature of globalization means that no one website can operate in a vacuum as the world is one giant web of inter-connected talented people.
In winning this category, the Manchester United website was able to make a substantial amount of profit for its corporate partners, especially Nike and AIG. The sums quoted were in the tens of thousands of dollars and this shows that raising capital for third parties has become so central in web-building that it is a wonder Ghana’s sport businesses have not caught on to this lucrative train.
The human angle
In the end, every website must be manned and accessed by human beings. A casual glance at what Ghana has to show for sports-related websites shows that on the world level, the nation is generally an apology on the World Wide Web. It is either we keep things too complicated or too simplistic and under-ambitious.
Yet, the numbers of computer science students Ghana produces yearly means that this must not be the case. If the club website of Manchester United is worth an estimated $1.85 Million, we can do the same. The reason is stunningly simple: human beings run theirs, so human beings can run ours, too, for profit!
Looking forward to change
The development of sports websites has been meteoric in the past few years. Today they are at the very core of many sports clubs and events around the world, providing a 24/7 interface with fans and creating a real sense of community and belonging and reaching every part of the world.
The best websites have changed the way that the world of sport relates and reacts to its customers, who are the fans. Crucially, Ghanaian sports teams and entities should not feel that the concept of building money-making websites is foreign and alien to this country and the continent. That’s false, because sites in other African domains such as North Africa and South Africa are utilizing modern trends to make money.
And, let’s face it, by having an accessible site football related businesses and organizations can gain respect and good publicity. If I may say so myself, the opportunities that have been open to me since I decided to dedicate proper time and effort into my weblog is a case in point. When this feature sees the light of day in the B&FT, then it is another milestone gained from that blog.
I strongly believe that the lack of vision, ambition and the will to take risks are the self-imposed obstacles Ghana has put in the way of its own internet dominance in sports business.
Every day, thousands of Ghanaians around the world trawl the World Wide Web for information about their favourite sports teams, businesses and entities based in Ghana. Since most of these entities are football clubs, most of the allusions in this feature would be in the language of football.
If Ghana is serious about foreign direct investments (FDIs) then we should look the way of improved conduct on sport-related businesses on the internet. Entrepreneurs should not also think that there is no money to be made in this era of the credit crunch, for we now know that in 2008 Ghana’s economy surged by over seven percent. This, at a time, when the world was supposed to have been nose-diving faster than Talal Fattal’s Sporting Mirren did in the last Glo Premier League.
Followed by thousands here in Ghana and owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, Chelsea FC won its first major trophy of the new season, not on the pitch, but by beating Premier League rivals Manchester United to the inaugural SportBusiness Ultimate Sports Websites Award 2009.
The awards were introduced by SportBusiness Group to recognize the increasingly important role that an effective online presence plays in all areas of sport and commerce. These range from attracting and engaging fans to delivering profile for sponsors and cost-effective revenue generation through ticket and merchandise sales.
Chelsea won the overall Award by a single point.
Was there a Ghanaian sport website? Are you kidding me? Of course not.
As at June 2009, internet penetration in Ghana was estimated by the International Telecommunications Union to be a mere 4.2% as compared to 8.7% in Africa. And according to the same statistics, only 997,000 of Ghana’s estimated 23,887,812 population have access to the internet. The next national census would soon be due, and then I can revise my population figures accordingly.
Very soon the country with its sub-regional neighbours would be interconnected with undersea fibre optic cables. This development is expected to increase internet connectivity and access in Ghana. That begs the question of how Ghana’s sports business entities can tap into this watering hole.
What Ghana’s sports business websites need
Internet marketing is now a major, multi-billion dollar industry. Yet the Ghanaian sports industry is on the leeward side of the money makers.
The spending on search engine marketing (the fees advertisers pay to have their adverts shown on search results and websites) is now measured in the billions of dollars rather than millions. As it stands, only few Ghana-based or Ghana-centered football related businesses have fully functioning, monetized and competitive websites that attract heavy web traffic.
I stress on fully functioning, monetized and competitive because many Ghana-based football entities have websites that have either been disconnected or are dormant. Notable examples include the sites of the teams that placed first to fourth in the last Glo Premier League. Giants like Kumasi Asante Kotoko, Accra Hearts of Oak, Heart of Lions and King Faisal as well as emerging forces like Tema Youth and Bechem Chelsea all have inconsistent websites.
In the past, popular websites like soccerghana.com, allghanasoccer.com and Yaw Ampofo-Ankrah’s myghanafootball.com have all gone extinct due to various factors. At the heart of these are the lack of fresh and relevant content, the non-appealing styles of these sites and/or the myopic ambitions of the proprietors.
The business-minded person may set up a website with the aim of making some money. Yet, some have expressed an ingrained fear of building transaction-based football websites that can sell football or sports related materials to the world.
Despite these concerns, study upon study shows that many internet consumers now have the confidence to transact purchases using the web. And, in any case, with the recent introduction of the Verified by Visa (VbV) system by GTBank and a few other issuer banks to reduce the incidence of fraud and later disputes, one cannot give excuses for not doing business over the web from Ghana.
A modern, well presented website is now expected for any serious sports business and organization. A sports business website should explain the products and services offered or, in this case, it should tell the user what the organization is about and what it has to offer in as little time as possible because internet users are not known for their patience. The site should also provide background and general contact information about the sport business.
A website can also allow online transactions of team kits, memorabilia and any other things peculiar to the entity that owns it. A more accessible sports-related website can make the surfing experience better for everyone.
What our sports businesses are missing
The recent SportBusiness Awards I spoke of earlier concentrated on six categories: Content, Community, Style, Monetization, Partnership Activation and Attracting New Fans. Accumulated scores across the categories determined the overall winner of the Ultimate Sports Website Award 2009.
Content
Manchester United’s site (manutd.com) took the honors in this category. A critical look at this site shows that there is a constant effort to ‘create news’ such that even when nothing seems to be happening, the site has fresh ideas at all times. Readers may be skeptical about the potential for similar success in Ghana. That is unfounded.
If anyone cares to listen to the radio stations on an average day in Accra, it is clear that there is so much happening out there that the media houses sometimes complain of having too little staff to do all of it. Player registration information, league scores and tables, charts, historical records, important notices, opinion polls, player statistics and game-by-game information, management decisions, annual and fiscal reports and a whole gamut of miscellaneous data can be put on a standard sport business website.
Community
In internet jargon, a community can be loosely explained as a collection of enthusiasts of a subject or event. In this case, I mean the ability of a sports website to attract like-minded people to stay and discuss matters of mutual interest with fellow aficionados while making money on the time the users spend.
Speaking of Ghanaian football websites, I am hard pressed to find any communities that are more vibrant than those of Ghanasoccernet.com, SportsinGhana.com and Ghanaweb.com. These are user-friendly, click-and-go portals that have good timely content that can be used by all and sundry (although more can be done to improve the grammatical correctness of both websites).
The impact of such websites on the football or sports fan is obvious: they would always recommend such sites to friends and return for more. One other site that is also doing well is ghana.worldcupblog.org.
The style of a sports or football websites needs not be garish and over-decorated. Simple and straightforward is the way to go. Chelsea FC also won the Club/Team Awards in the Style department of the SportBusiness awards and you may log on to their page (chelseafc.com) to see why.
The site caters for the different levels of fan-bases that the Chelsea FC team attracts. Navigation is fluid, not convoluted and winding. This means that whether a fan works with the British Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street or operates an internet café at Mamprobi in Accra, one could find that the site adapts to your tastes. Crucially, the site is compatible with several platforms.
In Ghana, devices such as mobile phones are in widespread use for web-surfing but less so for Personal Digital Aassistants (PDAs) and in-car browsers. Yet for even the technologies that are commonly used to access the internet in the country, we find that many of our sports related websites are inaccessible to these browsing technologies.
Websites should be flexible enough to display on devices such as those I’ve mentioned, while degrading gracefully to work with older technologies such as the good old Pentium 2 computer at that rundown café behind my grandma’s home at North Kaneshie. As many web surfers are embracing broadband internet access, the numerous web designers we have all over town need to remember that a considerable portion of their clients' audience still use slow internet connections.
As I speak, Ghana Telecom’s figures show that a large chunk of their subscribers use less than 125kb download connections. Unduly delaying access to the content of a website can put visitors off and businesses risk losing custom as a result.
Monetization
For every sport business entity, this is one of the most important aspects of having a website. In basic terms, website monetization is the ability to use your site to make money online. And anyone who has followed Deloitte’s yearly ‘Football Money League’ would not be surprised that Manchester United won the monetization category of the SportBusiness website awards.
Manchester United’s site makes use of carefully researched data on internet users’ behavior patterns. The site has cleverly placed adverts in strategic locations and makes sure that it is virtually impossible to miss the colourful and relevant adverts they place all around the site. Conversely, the problem Ghana’s sport-related sites have is that the adverts placed are either not relevant to the visiting users or even if they were, are not strategically placed so that they can be found with ease.
As it is now, I am quite impressed with the use of such current ad-placement techniques by the popular Ghana-centered websites, Myjoyonline and especially Ghanaweb.
In addition, Alexa says the website is worth an estimated $145,400 and is the tenth most visited website in Ghana. These are not bad figures at all and also go a long way to show that if run professionally, a strong internet presence by Ghana’s sports businesses could be very profitable.
Other Ghanaian-based businesses must build competitive sites that can make money otherwise the venture of building a website is sadly, wasted. Having a great website without having monetary returns is like weeding a farm daily without ever returning with any food.
Partnership Activation
Every business has partners and associates of one sort or another. In the world of sport business, the increasing nature of globalization means that no one website can operate in a vacuum as the world is one giant web of inter-connected talented people.
In winning this category, the Manchester United website was able to make a substantial amount of profit for its corporate partners, especially Nike and AIG. The sums quoted were in the tens of thousands of dollars and this shows that raising capital for third parties has become so central in web-building that it is a wonder Ghana’s sport businesses have not caught on to this lucrative train.
The human angle
In the end, every website must be manned and accessed by human beings. A casual glance at what Ghana has to show for sports-related websites shows that on the world level, the nation is generally an apology on the World Wide Web. It is either we keep things too complicated or too simplistic and under-ambitious.
Yet, the numbers of computer science students Ghana produces yearly means that this must not be the case. If the club website of Manchester United is worth an estimated $1.85 Million, we can do the same. The reason is stunningly simple: human beings run theirs, so human beings can run ours, too, for profit!
The development of sports websites has been meteoric in the past few years. Today they are at the very core of many sports clubs and events around the world, providing a 24/7 interface with fans and creating a real sense of community and belonging and reaching every part of the world.
The best websites have changed the way that the world of sport relates and reacts to its customers, who are the fans. Crucially, Ghanaian sports teams and entities should not feel that the concept of building money-making websites is foreign and alien to this country and the continent. That’s false, because sites in other African domains such as North Africa and South Africa are utilizing modern trends to make money.
And, let’s face it, by having an accessible site football related businesses and organizations can gain respect and good publicity. If I may say so myself, the opportunities that have been open to me since I decided to dedicate proper time and effort into my weblog is a case in point. When this feature sees the light of day in the B&FT, then it is another milestone gained from that blog.
I strongly believe that the lack of vision, ambition and the will to take risks are the self-imposed obstacles Ghana has put in the way of its own internet dominance in sports business.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
