It’s unfortunate that Wanderers family is resisting properly structured renaissance movement

* Registration of team into a limited liability company is a viable commercialization process

* The renaissance taskforce should not resign but should be encouraged to soldier on

* My plea to the leaders — Humphrey Mvula, Gift Mkandawire, Limbani Magomero and Mavuto Missi

For many years now, Malawian football clubs have been urged to revolutionalise by considering going commercial and moving away from its amateur status in which it depends on sponsorship or partnership deals that have proved unreliable over time.

This sponsorship or partnership deals have proved unreliable because they have been structured in such a way that clubs became too much dependent of handouts that come in the name of social corporate responsibility — not as a business partnership.

News that Mighty Wanderers FC plans to roll out a serious commercialization renaissance, which among others, is to register the team as a limited liability company is something every Nomad should have supported.

The renaissance movement was rolled out in earnest by the team’s executive committee led by its chairperson, Simon Sikwese by commissioning a taskforce that was to regenerate the team’s destiny following Be Forward’s withdrawal of sponsorship.

Reports are that the taskforce has made positive headway in the two and a half months it has been in operation in which it managed to identify five prospective sponsorship/partnership possibilities.

But these positive possibilities require further refinement and detailed discussions because most of the prospective business partners/financiers put a condition that they need to deal with a “team that is properly registered as a business entity and not a team that is operating as a loose association”.

In the midst of it all would be the supporter, who would benefit through seeing their team perform well on the pitch while at the same time benefit financially from the shares they might invest in the limited company.

But they would have none of it as the taskforce has faced strong resistance from “pockets of both the executive and supporters committees … who believe that this proposed registration can only take place if their names were included as ‘initial directors’.”

This has been revealed by the taskforce itself in a statement on Sunday that announced that they have decided to resign from the process because of this strong resistance from some pockets of influential people who “believe that someone would come-up to bail out this team in its current form”.

In resigning, the taskforce advises that the renaissance process should “wait for the cooling of emotions, rationalization of personal egos and acceptance by the remaining few to realize that Wanderers Football Team is bigger than the individuals”.

This is very true. The Wanderers family is indeed bigger than some individuals because the main source of pride of the age-old Nomads are the players on the pitch and their faithful supporters.

That’s where the team’s source of financial standing comes from which can make the commercialization drive succeed if proper structures are set to guard against the current state where there is rampant fraud and theft taking place from gate takings.

The resistance from pockets of Wanderers executive and supporters comes because they financially benefit through a syndicate that steals gate takings. They have always resisted digital ticketing system though Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has successfully achieved this revolution.

There are many things very fallacious associated with our football system — that just because the supporters pay to watch matches, then they own the clubs since they elect the teams executive committees. They believe that they are entitled to a share of the cake from gate takings.

This is where the taskforce faced resistance because if Wanderers becomes a limited company then it means identifying a Board of Directors that would in turn be tasked to employ a management team — to be led by a chief executive officer (CEO) — to run its daily affairs just like FAM operates.

The Board directs the management team through the CEO while the CEO reports back to the Board on matters that need its attention — all this done in transparency and accountability and where the management team fails, the Board takes the CEO to task.

In the event that Wanderers would be a limited company — for God’s sake, let it materialise — the management team would be tasked to manage ticketing process. No supporter would be allowed to manage cash transactions at the gates.

Gate cash transactions would be abolished and replaced with advanced digital ticketing just like FAM does. The fans would come to the stadia only with a digital confirmation of a ticket for that particular match.

This digital ticketing process is free from fraud since the money would be deposited into the club’s bank or mobile money services accounts, which the management team would account for a day or so after a particular match.

The deals with other stakeholders would be the extra resources where a sponsor would want to market its brand through the glamour that would be associated with pay TV broadcasting rights that FAM has just completed with Malawi Digital Broadcasting Network (MDBNL) on Kiliye Kiliye decoders.

At the official launch of the Pay TV channel, FAM vice-president Jabbar Alide had said the TV broadcasting rights would go a long way in guaranteeing local football’s sustainable revenue as it guarantees sustainable revenues for Super League teams — who have struggled financially for a very long time.

He had said: “It provides a platform for exposure of our talents [and]  it provides escalated value of our sponsors as they expose their brands further beyond the stadium walls.”

That brings to mind of our team names — time has come that football clubs’ management should never change teams’ names to suit that of the sponsor. Wanderers should not have accepted to change their name to Be Forward — nor Big Bullets to Nyasa.

They should not have accepted to change their colours from the traditional blue and white to Be Forward’s corporate orange. I am sure that if a foreigner was to have graced a much-touted match between Wanderers and Bullets they would definitely have wondered why there were many blue and white colours on the terraces yet the red and white Bullets was playing against an orange-coloured team.

A sponsor enjoys prominence through its brand being emblazoned on the front of the jersey and having an advertising apparel around the pitch for the benefit of the TV coverage.

Once the sponsor decides to go after expiry of the contract, the name remains as Mighty Wanderers or Big Bullets and the next one enjoys the same rights or even better. Sponsors are supposed to bid for the rights to be associated with the glamour of a particular club with the team choosing the best deal.

Elsewhere, the corporate world scrambles for visibility through football clubs or individual athletes to market their brands. Clubs should not be unnerved that the sponsors cannot be forthcoming if they do not accept adding their name to that of the team’s traditional moniker.

Mighty Wanderers family, accept this renaissance movement by not accepting the resignation of this taskforce that has set the ball rolling towards the revolution of football that others can emulate. It should be encouraged to continue with the terms of reference that it was given at the outset.

For the taskforce — led by former chairpersons Humphrey Mvula and Gift Mkandawire; former team manager Limbani Magomero and Mavuto Missi — I say don’t resign but soldier on to become the pioneers of the country’s football renaissance. I would love to see your names deservedly etched in the country’s football hall of fame.