Corry Ihuhua
7 November 2008
THE sudden and expected break-up of the Namibia Football Consortium (NFC) has left football in disarray.
It is so depressing to think that the celebrated N$40 million football deal signed and sealed by current High Court Judge President Petrus Damaseb three seasons ago has fallen flat without reaching its intended target of 2010.
Judge Damaseb was a former NFA president and retired soon after he secured the sponsorship.
It was obvious throughout the past three seasons that there was a growing uneasiness among the three consortium members because of the insufficient benefits they claimed to have enjoyed from the deal despite investing N$8 million each year.
That amount, to say the least, is paltry considering the increasing financial needs of the clubs and the running of the game in general.
It was also evident that the Namibia Football Association (NFA) became fed up with the contractual arrangement which kept them in the doldrums.
The requests by the association for more funding than the N$8 million were shot down by the NFC members, arguing that they still needed to get a return on their investment.
Returns on an investment do not come without taking risks, and having a well-managed financial system in place is crucial.
Not much attention was paid to those two aspects because the money poured into the game was never enough, while little thought was given to the future financial sustainability of the game.
Also conspicuous in its absence was a sponsorships co-ordinator, who was supposed to pull the strings on finances in a bid to protect the association from being held to ransom by the NFC and to ensure that they cough up more.
Another downside was the lack of a shrewd marketer within Soccer House to ensure that the game enjoys the desired exposure by prominently promoting it and drawing spectators to the stadiums.
After all, the NFC managed through the contract that had no exit clauses to have sole branding rights at all premiership and cup matches, while they claimed that they missed out considerably on income that was to be derived from television rights, which are ironically held by the NFA.
The NFA did simply not bother about the television rights and that area was never exploited to the maximum.
Television rights in sport can generate huge incomes for organisations and with no clear-cut policy on this in Namibia, it seemed to have been left for all to feed on freely.
But the biggest contributor to the break-up was how much each consortium member should have invested to sustain the ever-growing financial demands of the game overall.
The lack of consensus between the three parties to up their sponsorship amounts to at least N$10 million annually to football, gave way to the break-up.
Both First National Bank (FNB) and Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL) were just too rigid to embrace that, which in my view was inevitable.
Financial climatic conditions will never remain the same from an agreement that was signed three years ago and it is against this that Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC), as big and bullish as they are, gave the two an option: to either up their contribution and keep up with the current financial trends or to end the relationship.
MTC is capable of going it alone if given the room and with only over N$10 million as an annual investment into sport each year, it will not stop them easily.
The cellular operator generates a profit of about N$300 million, while the operating income amounts to at least N$1,1 billion.
They now have just over a million customers connected to their services.
Rugby and cricket are the other two major codes on which MTC is splashing out more than N$1 million a year and the company's total sport sponsorship is by far the largest in Namibia, but little in terms of the many obligations of especially the three codes.
NFA NEEDS TO OPEN UP Although this might not be the most realistic approach for now, the NFA has the chance to open up to new lucrative deals.
The contentious issue of how much should be pumped into football by the three members actually held up the start of the premiership, and not the NFA's reluctance or insistence on what they wanted on the table before kick-off.
That on the side was part of the talks though.
This means that the NFA was never party to the fight between the three members, but their (NFA) demand of just over N$9 million was affected by these squabbles.
Now, the NFA has the chance to invite more sponsors on board and put themselves in a position to call the shots at will and make football a million-dollar business.
The three consortium members claim to still wanting to be involved in different capacities with various roles, but the NFA and the Namibia Premier League (NPL) need to ensure that their interests are taken care of, and indeed well taken care of, for a long time to come.
One might feel that it will be fun to watch how these three companies fight for a stake in the game, but it is time that the football bosses (both NFA and NPL) draw a line and put football first.
The opportunistic interests that have been harboured by the NFC are now over and the both the NFA and NPL should to go out and boldly source for more, but credible funding into the game.
They both need to exercise their smart leadership skills to draw major investment into the game and at the same time, avoid the danger of tying themselves up with tricky contracts - like the one they had with the NFC.
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