The Sunday Mail
IN this digital age it’s astonishing that most of the Premier Soccer League clubs do not have websites and very little presence on social media platforms.
Setting up a website costs less than $100 and one would expect a serious football team, which is eager to attract sponsors, to have one.
A Google search for Dynamos and Caps United leads you to Facebook pages run by the clubs’ fans.
The Harare City website (www.hararecityfc.co.zw) has “the site is currently under construction” notice while FC Platinum have heavy presence on Facebook and Twitter but do not have a website.
Bosso have a website (www.highlandersfc.org.zw) and it looks colourful with adverts from sponsors.
However, it hasn’t been updated for over a year now and it still tells a visitor that Highlanders’ next match is a 2014 Chibuku Super Cup quarter-final clash while Bosso’s last match saw them falling 0-1 to Shabanie Mine at Ascot.
And there is a poll which asks visitors to choose the team they reckon will win the 2014 league title between Bosso, DeMbare, Caps United, Harare City and FC Platinum.
Kelvin Kaindu is still the coach and the trio of Milton Ncube, Munya Diya and Bhekimpilo Ncube are all at the club according to the Bosso website.
What impression does this give on to a foreign club that wants to get into partnership with Bosso?
Our clubs have been mourning about lack of sponsorship since time immemorial but have they ever thought about how attractive they are to the potential sponsor?
A corporate cannot just come in and pour money into a club that gives them little mileage.
Just having a sponsors’ name on the shirt is not good enough, there is no all-out television coverage of the local Premiership in this country.
The national broadcaster gives us weekly doses of Northern Region Division One league football and very little footage from the big boys’ league.
The television football magazine programmes are talk shows with very little highlight footages coming this viewer’s way. Now in such a scenario, how much mileage does a company get from having their logo on the shirt of Hwange or ZPC Kariba?
Some will say there is the SuperSport deal, but how many local matches have we seen on SS9 this year?
Talk of going professional is easy, being professional is something else.
Have you ever noticed that DeMbare use bibs written indoor hockey?
What does that tell a company which wants to go into bed with the champions?
It tells two things.
One, this team is disorganised and two, they should be desperate for any sort of sponsorship, so offer the minimum money possible.
Answer your damn phone Mash!
Zifa chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze has not been the total disaster I expected him to be as the man in overall charge of local football.
Both the Warriors and Mighty Warriors have seen little drama in camp as they prepared for today’s crucial battles against Lesotho and Cameroon respectively.
However, Mash has lived up to his reputation of not picking up calls.
It’s rather rude if you ask me.
His latest victims are Lesotho, who had to endure a three-hour wait at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Airport because Mash had not made their transport arrangements even after being notified about Dikwena’s itinerary.
And you know what happened when they tried calling the Zifa chief executive.
The Basotho are miffed.
The Warriors should not expect five star hospitality when they visit Maseru next weekend.
Va Shagare exits the scene!
VaShagare is the founder of DeMbare DotComs and can be contacted on that Facebook page as well as the email [email protected].
