Ghana is leveraging the global popularity of English Premier League football to promote the country as a tourism destination, with the Visit Ghana brand set to feature on Premier League club Sunderland’s shirts under a reported £10 million sponsorship deal. According to Business Insider, the reported value has generated debate in Ghana, particularly over whether public funds are being used to finance the proposed deal.
Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin announced the initiative in August, describing it as a private-sector-led project aimed at placing Visit Ghana on Sunderland’s shirts and using the Premier League’s global reach to promote tourism. “We are entering a formal engagement with them to put Visit Ghana on their jerseys and all paraphernalia. We have gone far with the discussions, and they are showing interest,” Bagbin told Parliament. He was also clear that Parliament was not financing the initiative.
“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,” Bagbin said, while noting the involvement of the Ghana Football Association, the Ministry of Sports and Recreation and the Ministry of Finance. The clarification followed reports suggesting that Ghana could be committing £10 million annually in public funds to the Sunderland partnership. Former Everton CEO Keith Wyness has since added weight to the reported figure, saying on Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast that he understood the Sunderland-Visit Ghana deal could be worth around £10 million.
Wyness also suggested that Sunderland could benefit from developing links with Ghana’s football network and young talent pool, citing the country’s history of producing high-profile players. However, the £10 million figure has not been officially confirmed as the final value of a signed agreement by Ghana’s government, Parliament or Sunderland. The Sunderland initiative is part of a broader shift in which African countries are using elite European football to market themselves to international consumers.
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Rwanda is perhaps the most prominent example of an African country using elite sports to market itself as a tourism and investment destination. Its strategy dates back to 2018, when Visit Rwanda became Arsenal’s first shirt-sleeve partner and official tourism partner. The country later expanded into France with Paris Saint-Germain in 2019, Germany with Bayern Munich in 2023 and Spain with Atlético de Madrid in 2025, before entering the US sports market through partnerships with the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers and NFL’s Los Angeles Rams in 2025.
In July 2026, Visit Rwanda added Aston Villa to the portfolio, becoming the Premier League club’s official front-of-shirt partner, exclusive tourism partner and official coffee provider, with its branding appearing on the men’s, women’s and youth teams’ shirts. The Sunderland initiative would make Ghana the latest African country to use Premier League shirt sponsorship as a tourism-marketing vehicle.
For Ghana, the relationship with Sunderland also predates the proposed tourism sponsorship. In June, Sunderland owner and chairman Kyril Louis-Dreyfus led a delegation to Ghana, where the club discussed strengthening its relationship with the country and exploring opportunities beyond football. “We have over the years had different connections with Ghana and it’s time to institutionalize the relationship for the mutual benefits of both sides,” Louis-Dreyfus said. Speaker Bagbin similarly said at the time that the relationship “goes beyond football,” pointing to potential business opportunities for Ghana.
The proposed Visit Ghana partnership therefore builds on an existing relationship between the club and Ghana rather than representing an isolated sponsorship transaction. For Ghana’s tourism industry, the potential value lies in turning football visibility into destination marketing.
The Visit Ghana logo would appear repeatedly during Premier League broadcasts, online content, club communications and international coverage, putting Ghana in front of audiences far beyond traditional tourism advertising.
The commercial environment is also favourable for clubs seeking new sponsors. A Premier League ban on gambling companies appearing on the front of shirts from the 2026/27 season has forced clubs to seek alternative sponsors, while the value of premium shirt placements has increased. Nielsen data cited by the Financial Times puts the average value of front-of-shirt deals for clubs outside the Premier League’s “big six” at about £9 million annually, up from £3.4 million in 2016/17.
That puts the reported £10 million value of the Sunderland–Visit Ghana partnership broadly in line with the commercial market for a major Premier League shirt-front deal. Recent reports indicate that Sunderland could unveil Visit Ghana as its new main shirt sponsor ahead of its Premier League meeting with Arsenal on September 12. However, until Sunderland or the Ghanaian authorities formally announce the agreement and its financial terms, the £10 million figure remains described as reported rather than officially confirmed.
If completed, the partnership would give Ghana something more valuable than conventional advertising space: a recurring presence inside one of the world’s most watched sporting competitions, allowing Visit Ghana to compete for global attention alongside some of the world’s biggest commercial brands.
