It’s a bottom line approach
In this week’s instalmentinstalment, Soccer Laduma’s Peter Raath chats to Cape Umoya Unitedited media officerofficer, Loyiso Loyis Nabe, about winning the hearts and minds of Capetonians. Nabe also discusses the team’s results so far and Nathan Paulse’s presence.
Peter Raath: Cape Umoya United might be new to the Mother City, but you’ve certainly hit the ground running by already building a brand within the various local communities.
Loyiso Nabe: We’re starting from scratch in Cape Town, so we obviously need to be creative. You don’t just walk in and have fans. Our whole strategy is to target communities and get the kids involved. Umoya has been bussing in about 500 children from Khayelitsha, Gugulethu and Paarl to watch games at the Cape Town Stadium. They’ve also received some branded kit. It’s a bottom line approach. With those kids, you have longevity. You get their parents and community involved. We really want to break down the barriers between the people and the soccer team. For us to charge money doesn’t make sense. The club needs to win them over, not the other way round. Another part of our strategy is targeting Local Football Asso- ciations (LFAs).
PR: Sounds interesting. Please tell us more!
LN: Partnering with LFAs is the best route to follow, as that’s where players start their careers. We want to walk the talk. To know that there’s a vis ible path to a professional career will motivate the kids to work hard and stay in the game. I actually came on board at Umoya because I’m involved quite a lot in LFAs; I understand their struggles. But nobody has actually taken the time to dig deep and engage with the communities. Having played the game within those structures, I’ve seen the talent. I’m also active in managing several academies, which is key. We randomly invited six amateur teams of 19 players each plus their respective coaches to our match against Mbombela United. It was exciting to see them respond and they didn’t just come from one LFA. This means the different Associations feel that we want to engage with them. On that occasion, there were approximately 200 kids from Nyanga, Philippi and Samora Machel. Basically, it’s about lifting up the entire communities and not just winning games.
PR: This brings us to your results… what lies behind Umoya’s 1-0 defeats to Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila FC and Jomo Cosmos respectively?
LN: TTM have a very loyal fan base at the Thohoyandou Stadium, so we always knew that match was going to be tough, especially after travelling nine hours by road from Johannesburg and playing in hot weather. Before the end of the first half, I could see that the boys were already tired. We just hope that Umoya can take our three points back when they come to us. It must rain a lot, as I’m sure that TTM will struggle under those different conditions (huge laughter). Our team played well for most parts of the Cosmos game, but were not as efficient as we would have wanted. The boys conceded an early goal from a basic error and when our captain, Manti Mekoa, received his red card, which I thought was soft, it was a game changer for us, although the opposition didn’t take full advantage of the extra man. Cosmos sat back to catch us on the counter. The game could have gone either way. We are fortunate to have a good number of leaders and there’s quality in the midfield to fill the gap in the meantime during Mekoa’s suspension.
PR: That’s where the experienced Nathan Paulse comes in, for instance.
LN: Yes, Peter. Everyone was happy when Nathan came out of retirement to put the ball in the back of TS Galaxy’s net in our first game. He’s a force to be reckoned with, a passionate player, who’s pro the community and a perfect figurehead for this club. Nathan has always been a switched on player, very vocal about the industry. It’s great that two of our talented players, Erick Chipeta and Wangu Gome, were recently called up for Zimbabwe and Namibia respectively, during the AFCON qualifiers. A funny thing about another midfielder, Nuzhad Pail, who previously played for TTM, is that he speaks a number of languages. Besides Afri- kaans and English, lh ‘ Scara’ ’ can engage in Zulu and Xhosa, while I also found out that he knows some Venda. I thought, “What’s up with this guy?” It’s nice to know that players get to learn different languages from other provinces. Our assistant coach, Dominic Isaacs, is fluent in both Zulu and Sotho. When Siphiwe Mnguni scored our winner against Richards Bay, it was a good result as they had already beaten both Ubuntu Cape Town and Stellenbosch FC. I feel that the NFD has become very exciting.
PR: But Witbank Spurs have just hammered you 4-1 at the Boland Rugby Stadium.
LN: The score line wasn’t a true reflection. Goals are what matter most. We weren’t clinical with our chances, which is always frustrating for the technical team, as these issues had been ironed out. The team made schoolboy errors and needs to forget about that game. Congratulations to Spurs.