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| Football has shown its great potential to generate income from the match day ticket sales, broadcasting and commercial sources such as sponsorship and merchandising. |
Over the years
and worldwide football has evolved from being a social activity into a
commercial venture with the potential of impacting on a country’s Gross
Domestic Product, resulting in job creation and poverty alleviation.
Football has gone global as a business which requires that
it be studied in its own right as a field of economic endeavour just
like any other industry.
Indeed, sports management is now a respectable field of study at University level across the world including Zimbabwe.
Football has shown its great potential to
generate income from the match day ticket sales, broadcasting and
commercial sources such as sponsorship and merchandising.
The impact of football on a country’s economy can be staggering.
For instance, in the UK and in the
2016/2017 season alone, the premier league made a contribution of £3.3
billion in taxes and also the league created 100,000 jobs.
The phrase “football economy” shows the
acknowledgement now given to football as an important source of economic
and commercial activity.
In stark contrast, and in the developing world, football has not been run commercially as a business.
Closer to home, research has shown that
over the years, football in Zimbabwe has not been run professionally and
commercially due to incessant wrangles for positions and poor
governance.
This has undermined the country’s ability
to enjoy the potential benefits that can accrue from the running of a
sport such as football in a sound, professional and commercial manner,
so that it contributes to the country’s GDP.
There are many areas that can assist in bringing about sanity in football administration in Zimbabwe.
However, this article explores only five
such areas that can contribute to the turning around of football
management and its fortunes as shown below.
Investment in the sport industry
Sport infrastructure is critical for the
development of football and its running successfully. At its most basic
level, local footballers will have the opportunity to train in
facilities that reflect world class standards.
Furthermore, such infrastructure can benefit other economic sectors such as tourism, real estate and retail.
World class teams can be attracted to come to Zimbabwe for off-season training camps, thus boosting tourism.
For example, Manchester United has got
slots for games in South Africa during its off-season period. If the
football infrastructure was poor in South Africa, it would not have been
possible for this arrangement to come to fruition.
Sound infrastructure will assist in the country’s bidding for the hosting of international football tournaments.
A successful bidding has got massive
implications for revenue generation and creation of employment, for
example in the construction industry.
However, the government must formulate a
football policy in terms of running football in the country and should
also be in a position to provide the requisite guarantees to support the
bids.
In order to attract corporate football
sponsorship, the government may consider giving special tax incentives
to ensure an active development of the game.
The current ban of all stadiums in
Zimbabwe by CAF from hosting international matches was because the
stadiums did not meet required international standards.
The CAF ban shows an apparent lack of
seriousness in the way in which football is administered in Zimbabwe.
The country has not lost only the opportunity to host the games, but
also the economic benefits arising from the hosting of such games.
It is, however, encouraging to note that
the government has released $13 million to be used for refurbishing
parts of Barbourfields and $22 million for the National Sports Stadium.
Development
Club licensing is part of football
development aimed to raise minimum standards in football governance. In
other words, it is a template for the meeting of certain prescribed
standards for the development of football clubs.
The template incorporates areas such as sporting, infrastructure, administrative, personnel, legal and financial.
However, clubs in Zimbabwe have failed to
wholly meet the set standards in the respective areas of concern due to
a lack of resources and to some extent ineffective leadership and
maladministration.
The bottom line is that such failure negatively affects the professionalisation and development of football in Zimbabwe.
The onus, no matter how onerous, still
remains on the club leadership to ensure that the set standards by FIFA
and CAF are met if local football is to come out of the woods and become
a viable commercial proposition which will benefit not only the clubs
but the nation as a whole.
Again, for the football to develop, it is
my view that there is need to take advantage of the existing structures
such as the school system were football should be part of school
curriculum.
Football academies should receive funding
since it’s the place where junior footballers start from to become
professional players.
In Bulawayo, Bantu Rovers produced our
current UK based top player Marvellous Nakamba, while BN academy in
Harare has been bringing into the country top European coaches to
Zimbabwe for school holiday training camps, and this has resulted in
four teenage players going for trials in Germany.
Former player Alois Bunjira is running Alban academy in Chitungwiza assisting children to achieve their dreams.
Effective business strategies
Football can learn from business and
business can also learn from football. This is because there are a
number of similarities between football and business.
For instance, for both to succeed they
require competent teams, both need to understand their strengths and
weaknesses and those of their rivals.
As pointed out earlier, commercialisation
has pervaded the game of football at a global level. Commercialisation
is also an intrinsic part of business.
Both football and business have set goals
which need to be met. However, for this to happen there is need to put
in place well thought out strategies supported by the requisite
resources.
With regard to football in Zimbabwe, such
strategies should exist at a number of levels such as ZIFA, Sports and
Recreation Commission, Ministry of Sports, football clubs and Ministry
of Tourism.
The government and ZIFA need to seriously
consider commercialisation and internationalisation of the senior
national teams as a game changing strategy.
Such a strategy has worked well elsewhere.
For example, the Nigerian Football
Federation partnered AS Roma a top Italian team. AS Roma and the Nigeria
Federation agreed to work together on areas of common interest such as
player development, football administration as well as technical and
operational support.
Unity of purpose
Unity of purpose is a prerequisite for
the success of any organisation. When things are not right and there is
continuous wrangling, (as is happening in Zimbabwean football at
national level) this tends to detract from goal achievement.
Zimbabwean football will not develop to
the required potentially beneficial levels as long as it is
characterised by animosity and struggle for power and positions.
If people stick to the rules of the game
and the constitution, there would be no need for the wrangles that have
poisoned the football game and stunted its development in Zimbabwe.
The recent lifting of bans on senior football officials perceived to be enemies of football is a welcome development.
The ZIFA President has taken a commendable step.
Accountability
Goal achievement in football involves the participation of various stakeholders.
In that regards it becomes critical that
areas of accountability be clearly spelt out so that progress is not
undermined or stalled because it is not clear who should be doing what.
A case in point is the CAF stadium ban where parties tried to run away from the responsibility.
However, it is heartening to note that it
has now been agreed that the Ministry of Sport will take over the
ownership and management of the National Sports Stadium.
Media reports have revealed that at
ZIFA, there are some responsibilities that are supposed to be carried
out by the secretariat but end up being done by the executive committee.
Such a state of affairs also undermines accountability and governance and tends to discourage would be sponsors.
It is refreshing to note that FIFA now
provides funding to participating national teams for tournaments on its
calendar. Lack of funding has been a constraint to ZIFA over the years.
However, ZIFA would still need to forge
strategic partnerships with sponsors to support its other areas of
economic need such as player bonuses. Such an endeavour can only succeed
when ZIFA is able demonstrate good marketing acumen backed up by a
solid corporate governance record.
Bernard Gwarada is a research
candidate in International Business at University of Pretoria’s GIBS
Business School. He is a co-owner of former Premier League Club Douglas
Warriors FC and a former ZIFA Board member. He writes in his own
capacity. Feedback: blgwarada@yahoo.com
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