Sir Wicknell Chivayo
Dingilizwe Ntuli
ZIFA must rise to promote a more positive image of domestic football and help it flourish despite the national association being mired in an existential crisis fuelled by the uncouth conduct of its short time self-glorifying benefactor Wicknell Chivayo.
Chivayo was this week embroiled in controversy that started with a personal attack on a journalist for correctly reporting that Warriors’ coach Callisto Pasuwa had not been paid a cent since signing his much hailed $7,000 a month, three-year contract with Zifa.
Chivayo deemed accurate and factual reportage offensive and spewed bile on his Facebook wall attacking the reporter for “unprofessionalism” before announcing time out on his Zifa sponsorship. As various individuals reacted to Chivayo’s ranting, the Harare-based “businessman” with a shady past, dragged in Warriors’ players, skipper Willard Katsande, striker Knowledge Musona and defender Costa Nhamoinesu, in his self-serving attempt to keep attention on his person.
He claimed Katsande had threatened to step down as captain if he withdrew his sponsorship, while Musona and Nhamoinesu allegedly begged him to stay and apologised for the Pasuwa article, branding journalists as unprofessional.
Hopefully this disgraceful behaviour by Chivayo has made Zifa rethink about the type of association it wants, as this litany of shame is not helpful in moving our game forward.
It’s time Zifa starts running the game with its head held high as a proper proactive business. We know that any form of publicity is advertising and advertising is just one way of promoting a product, but Zifa’s link with a scandalised subject matter in the form of Chivayo has certainly further dented its battered brand.
Although there is an undeniable glamour factor associated with sponsors, corporate sponsorship is far much preferable as it’s not guided by emotions, but business ethos. Personal sponsorship is dangerous and generally based on mood and emotions, as proved by Chivayo, in that it can be easily affected by the bruised personal ego of the benefactor.
Corporate sponsorship is a form of marketing in which a corporation pays for all or some of the costs associated with a project or programme in exchange for recognition. In this case, the sponsors’ logo would be embossed on the front and back of national team jerseys and they would be assured of making their products or service popular and visible.
Corporates are willing to spend where they find the terrain attractive enough to market their products and services. In the case of Zifa, value will come from the number of supporters that throng our stadia to watch national team matches.
Zifa must first build prestige by putting its house in order to attract sound corporate sponsorship. Proper, functional and robust structures must be put in place compared to the prevailing poor governance that has put at risk the attractiveness of sponsorship.
Sponsors want proper money trail and independent audits to ensure their money is not being abused, as no one wants to be associated with confusion.
However, according to Chivayo, Zifa doesn’t have a bank account and if Zifa doesn’t believe in itself, then how can it expect corporate sponsors to believe in it?