Jomo Sono was an iconic player in his day, but he has failed as a soccer business leader. To put it bluntly he doesn’t have the nous to turn Jomo Cosmos FC into a viable and cutting-edge soccer brand in the long-term. Yes, he has personally profited from selling players to other clubs, both local and international, but where has it left his club? Relegated to the second tier of league soccer. The results are a very negative impact on the clubs revenues, which ultimately impacts on everything else.
The football business needs new blood. It needs qualified CEOs and managers who can raise their entities to the next business level. Managers equipped to embrace modern soccer business models and cutting edge sporting methodologies. Most of the current crop has reached their Zenith.
Kaizer Motaung oversaw the growth of Kaizer Chiefs into the biggest soccer brand in South Africa. We commend him. He was the first to build, for his team, a training centre in the mould of those found at professional clubs in Europe. Recent results on the pitch and the emergence of mega-rich owners like Patrice Motsepe of Mamelodi Sundowns have rewrote the soccer script. Kaizer Chiefs is no longer the team with the most glamorous image, the best paid players, and therefore no longer attract the very best players in the land, despite their very impressive, and relatively short history. Now it’s time for him to delegate the direction of the club to a sharp new-age CEO who can move this solid business to the next level.
Would it not be a breath of fresh air if Kaizer Chiefs headhunted the best up-and-coming young business leader with a proven record of business success to be the new CEO of Chiefs? Wouldn’t it be great if that person perhaps had a business qualification from a major school like WITS, UCT or even Harvard? Other great soccer players who have gone on to become great organisational leaders, like Franz Beckenbauer, the President of Bayern Munich realised the importance of passing the baton on to new blood regarding the day-to-day running of the business side of Bayern Munich. Imagine what a really talented leader could do to a brand like Kaizer Chiefs, which already has a solid foundation.
Sundowns are a classic example of big money being misspent because the owner has not put in the right people to launch this ambitious club to another stratosphere. The sad thing is that the owner is willing but the people are not capable of delivering the business ideas to make this club really great.
It’s time our soccer started competing with the rest of corporate South Africa for the best minds to run our business. Yes, the founders and investors of our clubs have done well to get our clubs where they are but it’s time to raise the level of leadership and management to create the super clubs we all dream of.
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April 20, 2009 at 10:47 am
Hi Lennox
You got a point here!Indeed our african football need unselfish managers who have their interests on the well being of the club rather than personal financial ambition.
What good is a team selling good players but cant equally restore a good squad from the revenues.Of course just like in any business..we try to minimize our expenses but its high time our clubs know how to manage their revenues in order not to leave a very big gap after the sale of good players.The clubs need money..to sustain them but need to remain competitive at the same time.
We appeal to the soccer CEOs and managers to stop being greedy and start thinking on maintaining their clubs in the competition.It has been proven than good clubs are those with a good squad and a good proper management.