Local company planning to buy European club
…. as Nthoiwa Sports Excellence raises funds for the ambitious undertaking
FOOTBALL
Moran Nthoiwa of Nthoiwa Sports Excellence has invited the business community in Botswana to back him and raise funds that will go towards the purchasing of a football club in one of the second tier leagues in Europe.
According to Nthoiwa the Club will be a stepping- stone for local football players to play competitive football in Europe since that will strengthen the development of players and provide them with a platform to grow and improve.
In an interview this week Nthoiwa said they are targeting to gather around P5 million by the end of November 2020 “the timeline is that by the end of November 2020 we should have raised P5 million, by the 31st March 2021 we should be standing at P10 million.”
He added that by the end of May 2021 the running of the club should be at full force, “by June the club should be signing players, coaching stuff and admin stuff which some we would have acquired in Europe.” Moreover he said the company shares of the team will be listed, with individuals able to buy a single share at a price of P1000 “this means that 10 individuals can buy the shares with each popping up just P100.”
As a way of boosting stakeholder confidence Nthoiwa said he has formed partnership with a forth division club in Slovakia. From January 2020 local players will sign with the team with the effort to promote them and sell them to other elite European teams. Further he said this would affect the pace at which local players break into the market of European football, besides that he said the platform will not only be for Botswana based players. “We want the company to grow and we are obliged to entice and impress stakeholders.
We have a target of sending 15 local players to the team where they will be loaned and sold to other top teams.” Nthoiwa said part of the plan is to initially develop players who will play across Europe’s top five leagues being the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundasliga, Italian Serie A and the French League 1.
In the last decade, European football has witnessed a new phenomenon of billionaire owners. Private owners have purchased clubs such as Chelsea, Monaco, PSG and Manchester City or a consortium that in turn invested heavily in the clubs, if Nthoiwa’s idea can hold water then no doubt the business community will take a leap of faith and finance the idea.
This kind of acquisitions do not just start at the top end of the football chain but at the lower divisions, the common trend has been that most of the investment came from Asia and Europe.
Five years ago Nigerian businessman Kunle Soname became the first Nigerian to own majority shares in a European football club after concluding negotiations to acquire Portuguese second division side, Clube Desportivo Feirense.