Company spending millions on football development

UNDER the Stag Beer brand, Ansa McAl seems to have taken full control of sponsorship when it comes to division one football in Guyana. 
The company, known for its distribution of various beverages and products, has so far sponsored or is sponsoring senior leagues on the West Bank and East Bank of Demerara, in Georgetown and most recently on the East Coast of Demerara (ECFA).
“This is the only way you can truly have development and to show that you actually care about any sport. Everyone wants to have a big event but keeps forgetting that for anywhere or players to develop, they will need to play on a regular basis, consistently, and this is what we are about at Ansa McAl,” explained John Maikoo, Stag Beer Brand Manager.
Despite the administrative woes that continue to rock the country’s governing body of the game (Guyana Football Federation), the sub-associations have all been doing their best to insure that their affiliated clubs and players are kept in competition.
But while this is the Association’s mandate, corporate support can be a slippery slope to climb.
Asked what has compelled his company to pump millions of dollars into the sport, Maikoo said, “It’s just something we feel the need to do and to help a sport that really needs as much support as possible before it just dies a natural death.”
“Someone has to do it and want to be the one. The thing is: people just like the prize-money, some say it’s too small sometimes, but what we do, we also help the associations to offset some major administrative expenses. We help in advertising and other areas of development as well” Maikoo noted.
Darshnie Yussuf, Ansa McAl Public Relations Officer, believes that the company’s support is fuelled by their individual love for sports in general, calling their work environment a “sports-crazy place”.
“We all generally love sports; we love football, from our boss right down. At anytime of the day you can hear the average person here talking something about sports, about football. Troy (Cadogan – Marketing Director – is a sports fanatic and Ms Harper (Beverly CEO). She takes it to a whole different level. So giving back is easy to us,” said Yussuf.
She added “Ansa McAl does more than just sponsorship. We help in areas of development, spending millions on grounds and putting down new structures and in some areas, help reconstruct the ones that were left there to rot. But in all, giving back to sports is something we love doing because we just love sports.”
Over the last couple of years, the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) played their end-of-the-year tournament under the Banks Beer brand, manufactured by Banks DIH and with Ansa McAl and Banks Beer competitor Stag Beer now in the picture, it would be interesting to see how things manifest for the Association’s major revenue-earning event.
Asked if Ansa McAl would be making a push to have the GFA work with them at the end of the year, Maikoo pointed out, “Presently, we honestly haven’t even thought about it. Right now our focus is helping to develop the game around the country and working closely with those in authority to make it happen.”

(By Rawle Toney)