The Ghana Football Association (GFA), on Friday, June 23, won a significant legal victory against Westhead Limited at the High Court in Accra.
The almost decade-long Writ, concerning the sponsorship of the Black Stars by Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), was dismissed by the High Court, General Jurisdiction 4, presided over by Her Ladyship Mrs. Olivia Obeng Owusu.
Bringing finality to the action against the GFA, the High Court also fined Westhead Limited 20,000 Ghana Cedis (GHc20,000) in costs for losing the action against the GFA.
Lawyer Agbesi Kwadzo Dzakpasu, the President of the Greater Accra Branch of the Ghana Bar Association and the Chairman of the GFA’s Appeals Committee, served as the representative for the Ghana Football Association.
Recall that in 2014, three former top football administrators filed a lawsuit against the GFA, asking over $1,000,000 (US$1,350,000.00) as an agency fee for what they claim to be payments for their part in brokering the Black Stars-GNPC sponsorship agreement.
According to Westhead, they arranged the sponsorship agreement that saw the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation pour $3 million annually to sponsor the senior national side for three football seasons (2012/13, 2013/14, and 2014/15).
Westhead Limited filed a lawsuit in April 2014 seeking 15% of the $9 million sale as compensation for its role in arranging it, but Mr. Ato Ahwoi, who at the time served as the Board Chairman of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), denied any participation by them in brokering the deal and threatened to have contract cancelled if the Ghana Football Association (GFA) paraded a private company, Westhead Limited, as the deal’s brokers.
“Who are they?” – GNPC boss dares GFA to parade Westhead as brokers of Black Stars sponsorship
After taking over the GFA in 2019, the Kurt Okraku administration took up the matter and prosecuted it in court until Friday, June 23, 2023, when the verdict was announced. The judgment removes a massive potential debt that has been looming over the GFA’s heads for the past ten years.
The GNPC-GFA contract for the Black Stars was later abrogated at the end of 2017.
