Ghana’s £10m deal is dead; gay fans won’t be lured to homophobic nation
England-Ghana football/soccer promotion plan ignored dangers for LGBTQ tourists
Plans have collapsed for a £10 million “Visit Ghana” campaign that could have attracted gay fans of England’s Sunderland AFC football/soccer team to the West African nation that’s close to enacting a bill that would jail LGBTQ+ tourists and their supporters.
Tourism promoters in Ghana had negotiated to pay Sunderland AFC a reported £10 million a year (about $13.5 million USD) to put the words “Visit Ghana” on the front of team jerseys for the club, which competes in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system.
The LGBTQ rights advocacy group Rightify Ghana said the deal would have come at a time “when the country is facing growing human rights concerns over the proposed Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, which could criminalise and imprison LGBTQ+ people, as well as certain tourists, visitors and allies”.
The Sunderland fanzine Roker Report questioned the deal, asking “Should Sunderland accept commercial success at any cost?” and adding, “The proposed Visit Ghana deal raises difficult questions about values, human rights and the club’s identity.”
Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, owner and chairman of Sunderland AFC, had led a delegation that called on Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, to talk about building on his club’s “long-standing relationship with Ghana.”
But yesterday The New York Times sports website The Athletic reported that “Sunderland have said they are not expecting a sponsorship deal with Visit Ghana to proceed after six months of talks between the parties”.
“Sunderland had agreed a deal with Visit Ghana, but a statement from the club on Monday revealed that the partnership is not expected to be completed.”
Sunderland did not mention Ghana’s anti-LGBTQ policies. The club stated merely that after the deal was reached, “we have not received the formal approval from the Government of Ghana required to proceed, and communication and engagement has slowed significantly.
“Given the lack of approval and clarity on the Government’s position, we are now working on the basis that the proposed partnership will not proceed.”
Tourism promoters in Ghana had declared that funding for the deal would come from private sources, not from the government.
Bagbin said last month. “This is not being sponsored by parliament. In fact, the main sponsor is from the private sector. We are leading under my canopy to get this done.”
Rightify Ghana objected to the sponsorship deal and criticized Bagbin in a post on Twitter/X.
“Bagbin has also been described by critics as a prominent cheerleader and hardliner in support of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill, using his position to advocate for its passage despite concerns from human rights organisations and international observers about its potential impact on LGBTQ+ people, tourists and allies,” the post said.
What’s in the bill
The latest version of Ghana’s anti-LGBTQ bill calls for three years in prison for anyone who identifies as (“holds out as”) LGBTQ. It would allow LGBTQ people to avoid prison if they submit to counseling to try to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The bill would also impose a three-year prison term for people who participate in gender-reassignment surgery, enter into a same-sex marriage, or attend a same-sex wedding, and it would ban “funding, sponsorship or promotion” of LGBTQ activity, with prison terms ranging from three to five years.
It would introduce a “duty to report” prohibited LGBTQ acts to a police officer or other authorities, with violators facing up to three years behind bars.
In a revision from the previous version of the bill, it would declare media, legal, and healthcare professionals who report on, represent or treat LGBTQ+ people to be exempt from prosecution for those activities.
It would keep Ghana’s current law that provides a three-year prison sentence for same-sex intimacy.
