After some mild discontent in recent weeks, you’d forgive Sunderland for maybe laying low for a little while. However, it seems boxing clever isn’t on the club’s agenda – at least when it comes to recent commercial activity.
With reports in Ghana suggesting “Visit Ghana” is to become Sunderland’s primary, and therefore front-of-shirt, sponsor, it seems the club have been keen to complete a hat-trick of tone-deaf commercial decisions. It seems that introducing a membership scheme that is unclear and uncertain,
whilst following that with a ‘pay-to-bypass’ ticketing package in one of the country’s most financially deprived areas, just hasn’t been quite enough.
On the surface, this impending deal doesn’t seem too bad. After all, increasing our profile in Africa can’t be a bad thing and, with Sunderland’s recent history of welcoming Ghana’s premier footballers to Wearside, it seems a continuation of a relationship that has endured the test of time.
Except, times change.
In May of this year, the Ghanaian Parliament passed a bill criminalising “homosexuality and the promotion of LGBTQ+ activities”, proposing that anyone identifying as “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer” be punished with up to three years’ imprisonment.
On top of this draconian outlook, the bill also included a “duty to report” such prohibited acts to the police, as well as criminalising anyone identified as an LGBTQ+ ally.
If that wasn’t enough, Amnesty International has issued various reports citing concerns around the treatment of women in Ghana. This includes, but is not limited to, concerns around the continued – and utterly disgraceful – practice of FGM (female genital mutilation) and “witchcraft accusations”, which have seen women routinely subjected to physical attacks and murder as a result of these accusations.
As fans, we cannot control the commercial direction of the club and, when dealing with the vast sums of money at the top of the game, it is increasingly difficult to find money that isn’t, at least to some degree, tainted.
However, what we can do as fans is make our feelings known and show the club our true values, both as supporters and simply as human beings.
This is brought into even sharper focus when, for a number of years, fans have been rightly and openly critical of the Saudi Arabian connections of our nearest neighbours, who themselves boast a less-than-admirable human rights record.
Of course, ownership and sponsorship are two entirely different things. However, human rights are a constant across the board. We cannot lament Newcastle when we are happy, as a club, to shake the devil’s hand too.
As a fanbase, I would like to think that Sunderland are collectively conscientious enough to renounce partnerships that are, at best, only a step removed from being sportswashing endeavours designed to cover for discrimination and inequality.
Ultimately, any critique may mean very little as the capitalist machine keeps turning, where villainy is often a by-product of cash. But that does not mean the club’s tone-deaf commercial approach in recent weeks has gone unnoticed amongst fans, or that it has not left many feeling uncomfortable as a result.
These acts do not define the club, but they do, collectively, move Sunderland inch by inch further away from its soul.
Luckily for us, recent bans on far-flung, suspiciously regulated, low-UK-presence betting firms apply only to front-of-shirt sponsors, which means, hopefully, we may just stop short of getting the IDF to sponsor our sleeves or the East India Company to sponsor our training gear.
