New Puma Jerseys For Black Stars

The Black Stars will use newly-designed jerseys by kit sponsors, Puma, for the 26th African Cup of Nations to be staged in Ghana, but the colours will, however, remain the same.

If all goes well, the white-dominated and red-dominated jerseys will be 'outdoored' during the special four-nation tournament next month in Accra.

The Black Stars will play the United Arab Emirates, Benin and a yet-to-be-named third visiting country after Guinea pulled out after the Nations Cup draw.

Mr Randy Abbey, Executive Committee member of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), told the Daily Graphic that the issue of colours could only be addressed in the next proposal after the three-week tournament.

Puma has written to the GFA for a possible renewal of the three-year contract which expires next year but the FA top brass is yet to meet on it.

FA President Kwesi Nyantakyi said it was likely the entire contract would be reviewed but could not give details because he was yet to meet with his members, but Randy hinted that issues such as the delivery of jerseys and the replica jerseys would be seriously addressed.

As part of the old contract, Puma was to deal strictly with only local agents with the financial muscle to make front payments before the consignments were delivered, but it had been difficult.

For instance, during the Germany 2006 World Cup only Sportnet, a Ghanaian agent, managed to secure 500 pieces which were woefully inadequate.

However, Randy believes that such a clause limits the number of replica jerseys to be made available to fans and said there was the need for the FA to be involved.

Although not definite, he said the GFA, through its marketing agents, could put a few companies together to make it easier to raise the initial capital for more of the shirts to be put on the market.

He expressed worry at the timing of the outdooring of newly-designed jerseys which, he said, would invariably affect the availability of the replicas.

“It means the replica could only be put on the market somewhere in November, which is not ideal,” Randy said.
The GFA signed a $12 million three-year renewable contract with Puma to cover both equipment and cash for all the national teams.

Story by Daniel Kenu