A lot of South Africans don’t feel any qualms at all about buying counterfeit goods, otherwise colloquially known as “Fong Kongs”. This is a very serious problem that has brought CD music sales down significantly. There is a serious culture of illegally ‘burning’ music or buying branded fake goods from unscrupulous dealers.

Merchandising is a very important revenue stream not only for soccer clubs, but also for all other professional sports franchises. Clubs invest a lot of resources growing their brands and fan-bases and the sale of merchandise such as replica jerseys represents a much-needed return on that investment. But unscrupulous syndicates illegally cash-in on the goodwill of these clubs and the term ‘Fong Kongs’ derives from the conception that these originate from Asia.

Fans must realise that it is unethical to buy illegal counterfeit merchandise as this has very far-reaching implications for the economy. Not only does it support crime, but it also denies the club income that in turn denies the fiscus much needed revenue that would otherwise be used for social upliftment. Counterfeiting of merchandise is as undesirable as the illegal trade in narcotics and should be viewed in the same light.

Clubs should also make sure that fans have convenient access to a network of official merchandisers and should communicate the location of these official suppliers to their supporters. This will also ensure quality control, which cannot be underestimated. A year or two ago, Kaizer Chiefs FC‘s replica shirts were quite a huge hit overseas as people there found the gold and black design to be quite attractive. There was a news item on it and some of the merchants that were featured said they were planning to expand their orders due to the very high demand at the time.

In fact one of the major clubs came up with quite a good idea that would simultaneously discourage “Fong Kongs” while at the same time growing their revenue and economically empowering people. The idea was to encourage all street hawkers of merchandise to become registered official merchandisers by supplying them with official goods at supplier rates so that they could make their margins and in term increase the club’s penetration into the informal sector – a very important market indeed. The club would also offer additional support to the informal retailers to help them formalise their operations that would ultimately empower their business with the skills to take their businesses to the next level. These are the sort of initiatives that are needed to migrate people from a culture of buying “Fong Kongs”.

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Lennox Nhando wrote 61 articles on this blog.

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