A look at what is happening in our soccer today is however, a far cry from what Sibanda spoke about. The same authorities that are supposed to empower clubs are now milking them dry.
“How can Dynamos and Highlanders, two of the biggest clubs in Zimbabwe, be in debt? Each attracts tens of thousands of fans to its game every week, but they are struggling because the little remittance they get from their gate takings is taken away by the so-called football authorities running the game,” said Sibanda.
What Zimbabwean clubs get from their home matches does not correspond with the crowds that pay to watch their games, not because people pay little, but because the clubs’ share of the rewards is very little.
Instead of empowering clubs, the PSL, ZIFA, government and local authorities have become charity cases surviving on the financial sweat of the same clubs.
After every home game, clubs remit six percent of their gross gate-takings to the PSL, three percent to each of Zifa and the Sports and Recreation Commission, 20 percent to city authorities, another large chuck to the Zimbabwe Republic Police, who provide security at matches and another to a security company that provides cash-in-transit services.
Minus player bonuses and other internal expenses, the home club gets very little. When Highlanders hosted Dynamos before a paying crowd of 25,957 at Barbourfields Stadium earlier this season, the Bulawayo giants grossed $104,445, but were left with $40,500, far less than half the total amount, after the authorities and service providers had wolfed down the rest.
The Bulawayo City Council took $20,885, $9,800 went to the ZRP and a private security company, $9,200 to the PSL, $1,044 to Zifa and $6,200 was guzzled by the SRC, a government arm.
“It’s unjustifiable for Zifa to get a percentage from PSL games, criminal for SRC to get a cut from that and nonsensical for local authorities to take their 20 percent from gross gate-takings,” fumed Sibanda.
“In essence, all these organisations should be helping the clubs when they are struggling financially, but they want to milk them to extinction. Zifa and the SRC have been collecting money from clubs for years, but where is it going, since it has not developed our football? Teams struggle to participate in continental competitions and one would expect ZIFA and PSL to chip in and help. Our football is going backwards thanks to poor management.”
Despite stadiums being filled with perimeter boards, as part of touchline advertising, clubs get nothing from that, as all the money goes to a private advertising company contracted by city authorities to run touchline advertising at stadiums like Rufaro and Babourfields, with only the privately owned stadiums like Morris Depot, Motor Action Sports Club, Larfage, the Colliery and Mandava benefiting from touchline advertising.
The way clubs are being treated puts the Zimbabwean PSL way below South Africa’s ABSA Premiership, which attracts most of Zimbabwe’s talented players. Instead of deducting from them, the PSL pays each club a R1 million grant every month, meaning that each club gets a minimum of R16 million a season.
ABSA Premiership media officer, Luxolo September, recently explained that unlike ZIFA, the South African Football Association kept its hands off club coffers.
“SAFA has nothing to do with the gate-takings of the clubs,” said September.
While SA PSL clubs are responsible for their travel and accommodation, National First Division clubs’ travel and accommodation are the responsibility of the league, which also gives them a monthly grant of R380 000. Zimbabwean topflight clubs would fight to be in the same position as one of the SA’s NFD clubs.
“On perimeter boards, there is a split, with the involved clubs getting their space (they are free to use them in any way), the PSL sponsors and suppliers also have boards. This is a contractual issue between all the parties involved.”
With such an arrangement, the South African clubs, each having a multi-million rand individual sponsor, are well within their means to take over the remaining responsibility of hiring the stadium and private security companies.
Local authorities also pay some clubs to play a certain number of games in their stadiums, with giants Kaizer Chiefs reportedly getting R30 million from the Limpopo government last season, in exchange of them playing four games at the Peter Mokaba Stadium.
“The (SA) PSL continues to be a success story commercially. It has become a solid institution and a trend-setter in many ways. It continues to enjoy confidence from the corporate world – their investment in our product shows that they believe we are the right vehicle to be associated with,” boasted September.
Can the same be said about our own Zimbabwean Premiership?
Post published in: Football