The President of National Division One league side, Skyy FC, Wilson Arthur has advised Ghanaian clubs to seriously consider farming in a bid to generate some income to help mitigate the financial difficulties the Covid-19 pandemic has brought on the football sector.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has led to the postponement of football activities in the country for the past 5 months; a situation that has badly impacted on the finances of football clubs and other stakeholders.
With clubs reeling as a result of the implications of the Coronavirus induced break, Wilson Arthur has suggested that the situation is mitigable.
He has challenged clubs to be innovative in order to survive this period of hardship forced on the football sector by Covid-19.
The astute businessman has hinted that Skyy FC will consider venturing into farming to cater for some of their needs now and the future.
He disclosed this to Takoradi based Skyy Power FM in an interview.
“By way of funding and financial preparation Skyy FC would consider starting Skyy Farms,” Mr Arthur said.
“A lot of the vegetables take few months to harvest, so if I have the resources, I wouldn’t mind cultivating a rice farm making sure I have enough of rice to cater for my team for the entire season,” he noted.
Wilson Arthur has warned that due to Covid-19 badly affecting the global economy, it is going to be hard for corporate entities to cough up huge amounts of money to sponsor clubs and the various football competitions.
He has therefore urged the football stakeholders to look at identifying specific sponsors for their various needs/brands.
“We have to be innovative, by breaking down the cost of running teams into parts.
“For example if you have a team bus, you can work on fuel sponsorship, you can even do food and beverage sponsorship, water sponsorship, so you can put your expenditure into parts and get bits of sponsors for all, to ease the burden of club financing.
“This is very important because they way and manner business is moving in this COVID 19 situation it would be difficult to get one big sponsor to absorb all your cost, so this is the time to be very innovative,” Wilson Arthur concluded.
