Ghana Women's Premier League

The Ghana Women’s Premier League (GWPL), also known as the Malta Guinness Women's Premier League for sponsorship reasons, was launched in 2012 as the National Women's League (NWL) and is a top division league for women's soccer in Ghana. In November 2021, Hilary Boateng was appointed by the Ghana Football Association as the chairperson of the Women's Premier League Committee.

History
Up to 2006, regional areas had active women's soccer leagues. In 2006, a zonal league was created, that played out a national champion for the first time. Ghana was divided into 3 zones that played a league stage. Each zone then advanced 2 teams to a national stage.

A format was played in 2012–13. The league is played in 2 divisions. After the league stage, both division winners meet in a championship final. The first final was won by Hasaacas Ladies 2–1 over Fabulous Ladies at the Accra Sports Stadium. A part of the soccer equipment was sponsored by FIFA.

The 12 teams of the initial season were divided into 2 zones of 6 teams.

In 2021, the Executive Council of the Ghana Football Association decided to expand the League from its format 16 clubs to 18 clubs beginning from the 2021–22 season, meaning 9 teams for the respective zones to allow for a minimum of 16 league matches in a season.

Format
There are 16 clubs in the Women's Premier League, 8 in the southern zone and 8 in the northern zone. During the course of a season (from December to July) each club in each zone plays the others twice (a double round-robin system), once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents', for 16 games in each zone making it 32 games all together. Teams receive three points for a win and 1 point for a draw. No points are awarded for a loss. Teams are ranked by total points, then goal difference, and then goals scored. If still equal, teams are deemed to occupy the same position. At the end of the zonal league both top placed clubs and zonal winners meet in a championship final to decide the national champion.

Promotion and relegation
A system of promotion and relegation exists between the Premier League and the Division 1 League. The lowest placed teams in zones of the Premier League are relegated to the Division 1 League, and the top teams from zones in the Championship promoted to the Premier League. The number of clubs was increased from 16 to 18 in 2021–22 season.

Finals
The list of champions and runners-ups:

2019*** Ghana Women's Special Competition

Sponsorship
From its inception, the league did not have a title sponsor and was simply referred to as National Women’s League. In 2018, FreshPak, a subsidiary of Groupe Nduom, were announced as the league's first ever title sponsor worth GH¢500,000 over the next 2 seasons.

On 5 August 2022, the Ghana Football Association announced Malta Guinness as the league's title sponsor worth GH¢10 million for 3 years from the 2022–23 season onwards. Electroland Ghana Ltd, distributors of NASCO electronic appliances, has been a partner and sponsor of the Women's Premier League since 2019–20 season. The company sponsors the Player of the Match award, the monthly awards which includes the Player of the month and Coach of the month awards along with the annual and end of the season awards Player of the season, Top Scorer, Discovery of the year award, Best Goalkeeper and Coach of the season awards.

In October 2020, GFA signed a 4-year partnership deal with Decathlon Ghana which includes Decathlon providing 1,000 Kipsta balls and other complementary sports products per year to the league from the 2020–21 season onwards.

In February 2022, online gambling company Betway signed a sponsorship deal with the Ghana Football Association as a Development Partner of the Ghana Women's Premier League. As a development partner, amongst their roles would be to provide a season-long mentorship and leadership programme for officials, administrators and coaches of the women's soccer clubs. Betway provides training equipment and warm-up kits to all participating clubs in GWPL. The sponsorship was extended in February 2023.

Media coverage
In February 2020, the Ghana Football Association signed a broadcasting right sponsorship deal with StarTimes Television for 6 years starting from the 2019–20 Ghana Premier League season. As part of the deal StarTimes dedicated $100,000 in the first year as a visibility support to the Ghana Division 1 League and women's soccer especially the Ghana Women's Premier League. They dedicated $50,000 for the following 5 years.

As part of the deal, StarTimes Sports and shareholders Max TV broadcast the 2020–21 Ghana Women's Premier League Final and 2020–21 Ghana Women's FA Cup Final.