Ghanaian football missed out on a potential sponsorship deal worth more than $5 million annually with Guinness Ghana Limited because of restrictions imposed by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Ghana Football Association (GFA) President Kurt Okraku has told Parliament.

He said the company had approached the GFA with plans to invest heavily in the Ghana Premier League, but the proposal fell through after the FDA declined to approve the sponsorship arrangement.

Mr Okraku disclosed this when he appeared before Parliament’s Youth and Sports Committee, where he appealed to the lawmakers to lead efforts to remove restrictions preventing alcoholic beverage companies from sponsoring sporting activities.

“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 series of meetings. At the end, FDA said no. The deal was, if I'm not mistaken, over $5 million a year,” he told the Committee.

He argued that the provision giving the FDA authority to approve or reject sponsorship deals involving alcoholic beverage companies should be removed to allow businesses to support sports development.

“Mr Chairman, if there's one thing that you can do to help sports and football, that will be for you to lead the charge to completely take out that provision,” he appealed.

The GFA President said Ghana was losing out on sponsorship opportunities that football leagues in other countries continued to enjoy through partnerships with major alcohol brands.

Beyond the sponsorship restrictions, Mr Okraku identified poor playing surfaces, inadequate stadium facilities and limited investment in technical development as challenges affecting the sustained success of Ghana's national football teams.

He said achieving lasting success required continuous investment in grassroots and youth football, coach education, international exposure for local coaches, scouting systems and quality playing pitches.

“If one has to be honest, Mr Chairman, there is a lot more that brings sustained success in football. This includes, but is not limited to, continuous investment in grassroots football, continuous investment in youth football, sustained and continuous investment in coach education, exposing your coaches to the international market,” he said.

He warned that without sustained investment in these areas, Ghana would struggle to achieve consistent success in major football competitions.