Needed: Sustainable soccer sponsorship

What you need to know:

  • In the event, the ‘hostages’ were allowed to leave the hotel after a Bongo Fleva artist, Harmonize (Rajab Abdul), had paid the bill.

Recently, players and officials of the Mtwara Region-based Ndanda Football Club (‘Ndanda’) were detained at a hotel in Singida Region after they failed to pay a Sh3 million accommodations bill.

In the event, the ‘hostages’ were allowed to leave the hotel after a Bongo Fleva artist, Harmonize (Rajab Abdul), had paid the bill.

Ndanda is one of the 20 clubs participating in the ongoing (Mainland) Tanzania Premier League, and its failure to foot such a relatively modest hotel bill raised eyebrows.

Analysts question how the club made it to the national league in the first place if they cannot fork out Sh3 million on the spot to pay a legitimate bill – and whether club officials, employees and the players are regularly paid their rightful emoluments in full and on time.

Does Ndanda faithfully adhere to the signing terms and conditions for its players, coaches, etc.? How does the club meet its day-to-day operating costs, including utility costs, fees and other levies?

How many other soccer clubs are in similar predicament, pray?

Hopefully, there cannot be many – especially considering that there really is no shortage of sponsors from the business world, including industrialists and financial institutions.

All they need to chip in with financial and other forms of support is assurance that the aspiring clubs are worth sponsoring. So, the ball is squarely in the clubs’ court, so to speak.

The footballing world – no doubt spearheaded by the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF), club leaders and other stakeholders – must continue to find ways and means of facilitating sustainable sponsorship for the sport.

Not only would functional, sustainable sponsorships take soccer to the next higher level; they would also help avoid embarrassment every which way – even as they uplift up-and-coming clubs like Ndanda to the levels of soccer heavyweights Simba, Yanga and Azam.

INCREASE EAC TECH FUNDING

Africa aims at harnessing and applying science, technology and related innovations to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development.

This is stipulated in the Technology and Innovation Consolidated Plan of Action of the African Ministerial Council.

To succeed, adequate funding is needed for scientific, technological and innovative projects.

It is, therefore, disappointing that such projects are starved of funds within the East African Community (EAC).

If this trend continues, it may well become nigh-impossible to create wealth and improve the living standards of East Africans as a whole. Reports this week that nearly all the EAC member-nations could not undertake the planned projects because of insufficient fund allocations for the purpose are disheartening.

Participants in a Nairobi regional workshop on laying the grounds for a science, technology and innovation policy for the six-nation bloc cited other bottlenecks as being lack of reliable data and indicators of the current status of science and technology development, as well as lack of innovation mechanisms.

We urge the EAC nations to scale up funding for the envisaged science, technology and innovation projects.

By so doing, the EAC would be competitive economically. It would also effectively tackle infrastructure and healthcare challenges – and East Africans would prosper as a result.