NATIONAL TEAMS SPONSORSHIP
In Nigeria and Ghana, Globacom is the Official Sponsor of the national teams, a relationship the company has been enjoying in Nigeria since 2002.
NIGERIA
Globacom’s complete domination of football sponsorship in Nigeria was completed in 2004 with the signing of a new partnership deal with the NFA (now Nigeria Football Federation) which offered Official Sponsor status to the company for all the national teams of Nigeria. As was the case with the Premier League, the coming of Globacom into the national teams’ sponsorship proved timely and crucial to Nigeria’s participation in the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations. With N100m sponsorship facility from Globacom, the then NFA had very little to worry about in prosecuting its plans for the Eagles’ participation at the tournament in Tunisia. This sponsorship fee has since been increased to N150m.
In 2007, Globacom volunteered to pay for the services of an expatriate coach for the national team, a job that was handed to Mr. Berti Vogts of Germany on an annual salary of 600,000 euros excluding German and Nigerian tax charges paid by the company.
A number of the national teams have enjoyed performance bonuses from Globacom as reward for their successes in international championships. These include the Women’s Senior National Team, the Falcons, the U-17 National Team that won the FIFA World Cup in South Korea in 2007, and the National Beach Soccer team.
GHANA
The successes recorded by Ghana’s Black Stars with their 2006 debut at the World Cup has been sustained through the strong backing of Glo Mobile Ghana for the Ghana Football Association (GFA). The partnership signed in 2008 has ensured a steady flow of funds for the GFA to prosecute its developmental programmes and also sufficiently motivated the members of the Ghana senior national team to more successes. Ghana emerged the first African country to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, thanks to the 2-0 win over Sudan on September 5, 2009.
The Globacom-GFA deal is complemented by a performance bonus that increases the sponsorship fee in relation to the results attained by the team. Globacom is committing over $23 million to the sponsorship of Ghana national teams and the Ghana Premier League in five years. It is an unprecedented feat in the annals of sports sponsorship in Ghana.
