South Africa is indeed a land of contrasts. Sections of this country are third world and others are first world. The country has just joined an elite group that have had the privilege of hosting the FIFA World Cup – no mean feat at all. Our football enjoys sponsorship which is way above the level of any other African country, despite lagging behind rugby in this regard. Definitely, light years behind Europe, but heading in the right direction all the same.
There is one serious pre-season revenue stream that only Al Ahly of Egypt gets to enjoy on a regular basis, thanks to their recent successes in the CAF Champions League. I’m referring to prestige friendlies. Real Madrid is headed for the 2009 edition of the Peace Cup – a tournament a couple of our clubs have been to – where they will play the likes of Sevilla, Juventus and Olympique Lyonnais amongst others.
FC Barcelona will be participating in the Wembley Cup against the likes of Tottenham Hotspur, Glasgow Celtic and – would you believe it – Al Ahly. Chelsea and AC Milan will be playing each other in the USA. Manchester United is going on a lucrative 4-game Asian Tour before returning for a final pre-season friendly against Valencia at Old Trafford. Now what will our clubs be doing?
Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates are fortunate to have a sponsor that believes in leveraging on their sponsorship and hence the two clubs’ participation in the Vodocom Challenge, where they have been lucky to take on Manchester United in the last couple of years.
This is obviously the sponsor’s initiative – what has any South African club organised for itself? All the clubs are content to just stay in the country and play local friendlies that have no prestige which doesn’t do much for their brands. Two of our clubs have previously been invited to the Peace Cup but no other club has proactively followed up on this and as a result no other club has gone again ever since.
Imagine what participation in the Wembley Cup will do for Al Ahly’s brand besides the good it will do to the club’s bottom line. It will give their players the exposure of playing in an arena like Wembley and playing against the likes of Barcelona can only improve the Al Ahly players’ technically.
Sundowns are also fortunate to have a man like Patrice Motsepe who will bankroll the visit of a big European club to face his team. Again this is impressive but it is also very one-dimensional. Sundowns should be organising prestige friendlies against clubs in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, South America, North America, North Africa and West Africa. This would add another dimension to the club’s image.
The club spent a fortune to bring Barcelona to South Africa but even in this instance they did not fully leverage on this initiative. Why did the club not negotiate a return match in Camp Nou as part of the deal? This sums up the problem with our football. The will is there but the ideas are lacking. So as usual all our clubs will be all at home either playing in sponsor-organised friendlies or unprestigious provincial friendlies. There isn’t a club going out anywhere.
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July 29, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Hi Lennox,
You have no idea how much I agree with the sentiments you have just shared.
If possible I would like to enchange you in an initiative that will adress the very same topic you are referring to.
But to edifiy on what you have touched on regarding club branding…
I can imagine that a number of clubs may argue that financial constraints is the biggest reason why they are not taking the time to host their own tournaments or engage in revenue generating preseason activities but personally, this is nothing more than an excuse on their part for their general complacency in taking the neccessary steps to develop and grow their brands even further.
For instance, am I the only one who thought that the a lot of South Africans would have rather watched the Vodacom Challenge Soweto Derby than the final? I was at the venue and you would swear that the attendance at the stadium did not say “this is a final” in any way?!
Or evenmore closer to home, what is happening to the Chiefs and Pirates faithful? If I am correct there was something like 60 000 votes margin between Platinum Stars than both Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates votes?!
That for me says a lot about what is going on behind the scenes in both camps in terms of plans to maintain or grow brand following…
And what about the poor brand visibility of current PSL champs Supersport & Nedbank Cup champs, Swallows?! I mean for clubs that have just won two of the most lucrative titles in the country, where is the marketing communication to attract a new supporters to this clubs or reassure fans that they are still a brand to be reckoned with in SA?
But long story short, I agree with you Lennox that there are some people in the soccer industry who are getting paid a hell of a lot for doing absolutely nothing to increase revenues or simply even, their club’s brand profile in SA.
July 30, 2009 at 10:15 am
I agree with you Tshiamo that there are people in SA football who do nothing for our clubs. You mentioned good examples of poorly marketed clubs in Supersport Utd and Swallows. Why do they not leverage on their respective sponsors for prestige friendlies. Mutichoice, the owners of SS United could sponsor a pre-season tournament featuring the champion clubs of their biggest DSTV markets such as Nigeria, etc, and call the tournament the DSTV cup. VW could organise a pre-season tournament featuring clubs that they sponsor in Germany, Belgium and elsewhere in Europe including Swallows. However the iniative has to come from our clubs and they have to ‘sell’ the initiatives to the sponsors with a breakdown of how the sponsors will also benefit from the additional exposure that the tournament will bring them. They have to do the groundwork but it seems unfortunately, as if not many have the capacity to do so.