Ghana Set to be Front-Of-Shirt Sponsor of EPL Side Sunderland

ACCRA, Ghana — Ghana is set to  feature as a front-of-shirt sponsor English Premier League club Sunderland  under a reported £10 million-a-year partnership between the country’s tourism authorities and  the EPL side.

The proposed Visit Ghana sponsorship is expected to be unveiled ahead of Sunderland’s Premier League match against Arsenal on September 12, replacing betting-company branding that has appeared on the club’s shirts in recent seasons.

If concluded as reported, the deal would also become the most lucrative shirt sponsorship in Sunderland’s history.

The partnership was first publicly disclosed in August by Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, who told lawmakers that negotiations had progressed significantly.

Bagbin said the initiative was being financed by the private sector rather than Parliament, adding that the Ghana Football Association, Ministry of Sports and Recreation and Ministry of Finance had supported the discussions.

The agreement is designed to use Sunderland’s Premier League platform to promote Ghana as a tourism destination to a global football audience, particularly in the United Kingdom.

The move comes as Ghana seeks to increase the economic returns from international tourism despite recording a modest rise in visitor arrivals.

According to the Ghana Tourism Authority’s 2025 figures, international arrivals increased by 1.4 percent, from 1,288,804 in 2024 to 1,306,962 in 2025.

However, tourism receipts declined from US$4.82 billion to US$4.34 billion during the same period.

Average expenditure per international visitor also fell from about US$3,743 to US$3,320, highlighting concerns that higher visitor numbers are not necessarily translating into increased tourism earnings.

Tourism consultant and Africa Tourism Research Network president Emmanuel Frimpong has therefore cautioned that marketing alone will not be enough to deliver the desired economic benefits from the Sunderland partnership.

Frimpong argues that Ghana needs to improve its ability to convert international visibility into actual bookings and spending by strengthening accommodation, road and airport connectivity, tour-guide services and digital booking systems.

He has suggested that the sponsorship should be connected to bookable tourism packages rather than functioning solely as a branding exercise.

The United States remained Ghana’s largest single source of international visitors in 2025, accounting for 155,289 arrivals, followed by Nigeria and the United Kingdom.

The UK recorded 56,588 visitors, making it one of the markets most directly exposed to the Sunderland partnership and the Premier League audience.

The proposed deal would give Ghana an unusually prominent platform in English football while placing the Visit Ghana brand on the shirts of a club with a large domestic and international following.