Privatisation: Gunners should tread carefully
Dennis Keagile | Friday February 12, 2016 12:21
As a result, the term ‘investor’ has become common in football yet the word refers to an agreement with the financial messiah, the person who is liked for his/her money but not his ideas.
Unfortunately, football is a strange business that does not meet all the strict rules a normal business does. In sport, football in particular, there are always two owners of a club: the investor and the supporter.
When these two disagree, the result is an endless conflict.
Therefore, the investor should always appraise himself with the situation of a club.
Usually supporters resist the takeover only for their emotional attachment to the club.
Again, the investor should always let members of the club know his vision.
If the investors could always state their mission or objective right from the onset, many of the current squabbles bedevilling our clubs could not be there.
One major draw back is jealousy among our clubs because instead of exchanging notes on the challenges that they have gone through, each tends to keep its own experience.
I have seen Mochudi Centre Chiefs trying several models, including that of leasing the club to Paragon Services for five years on a trial run to seek a hybrid model.
The company was given the liberty to do all it can while the executive of the society will perform oversight duties basically to conform with the Societies Act.
Unfortunately, Paragon Services could not fulfill its contractual obligation despite being given carte blanche control in running and managing the club.
I still think that this could have been one of the best transitional periods where supporters could have been kept on board. The other problem is the limited knowledge of supporters on their mandate.
In Europe most clubs have a supporters trust, which basically looks after the interest of the supporters but because we tend to copy everything from South Africa, the end result is total confusion and naivety both on the part of the executive and the supporters.
Perhaps the greatest danger lies in the fact that club executives and would be investors never come out clean or share the full information with supporters.
Currently, there is a group or section of Mochudi Centre Chiefs supporters who do not want to hear anything about the trust that majority of supporters agreed because the supporters believe that the executive was not honest.
This therefore brings us to the talk that Extension Gunners want to sell 80% of their shares and I wonder if real Gunners have shares. The best description would be to say the club wants to cede 80% control to a company or individual purely as a going concern.
More often than not, we tend to use descriptions or terminologies that have no legal bearing or which in law are null and void.
I would therefore urge Gunners to exchange notes with Chiefs, Gaborone United and Township Rollers on the challenges or successes they have had. There is nothing wrong asking Nicholas Zakhem of GU or MaClean Letshwiti of Chiefs as well as Sommerset Gobuiwang of Township Holdings what they went through.
Letshwiti in particular has been with Chiefs for many years operating behind the scenes and is experienced.
This is not to say he has no limitations, but has seen a lot and can share his experiences.
It is my interest to see one of Botswana’s club being used as model of success on privatisation or commercialisation.
In South Africa, Kaizer Chiefs is the club that many benchmark on even those with lots of money like Mamelodi Sundowns.
In terms of professionalism, they still lag behind Chiefs. Gunners officials need not have pride or let their egos rule them but should enquire on the challenges.
Lastly, I want the Botswana Premier League and the Botswana Football Association to develop a blueprint for commercialisation.
My take is that the two organisations have the resources to source out information for our clubs and guide them on the way forward.
Time for trial and error is gone. It is time for real delivery and development and the issue of a supporters trust can best protect the interests of supporters.
The other danger with our clubs and national executive is that they seem not to want to develop a blue print or operating model that whoever comes in or inherit the club can use it.
It is time to share information for the benefit of all.