A window of hope
ZIMBABWE football, choking from the lack of sponsors, weighed down by spectator flight and reeling from the toxicity created by poor leadership, has been handed a golden chance to try and arrest the slide.
Leaders of the country’s biggest sporting discipline have an opportunity to try and find solutions to their challenges, by interacting with global experts, at an historic two-day summit in South Africa next month.
The inaugural World Football Summit Africa, a multi-event conference which provides a platform for experts involved in the multi-billion dollar football industry to meet, discuss and generate value among themselves, will be held in Durban on March 17-18. The inaugural WFS summit in October 2016 featured eight events, 593 speakers, 10 000 participants, 284 football clubs drawn from around the world, 72 leagues and federations and 1 956 companies.
This year other WFS summits are set to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, on May 29; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 1-2; and Madrid, Spain, on September 23 to 24.
The first WFS summit in Africa could not have come at a more appropriate time for Zimbabwean football, which is reeling from a number of challenges.
Its once-vibrant youth systems, which used to provide a steady supply of gifted athletes into its ranks, has collapsed.
The domestic Premiership continues to lose every decent footballer, who emerges on its scene, to clubs in South Africa, Zambia and Tanzania, leaving it without the star quality to sustain its fan patronage. The country’s traditional giants — Dynamos, Highlanders and CAPS United — have been finding the going tough, unable to find the financial muscle, to compete with the emerging challengers.
And, given they remain the ones with the biggest support base, this has badly affected attendance figures at the domestic Premiership games. This has turned the league into one which doesn’t have the bargaining power, in terms of its appeal, to bring new sponsors on board. The advent of smartphones and social media, which enable some fans to just follow how their favourite clubs are doing from the comfort of their homes, has also had a huge impact in keeping supporters away from the stadiums.
The power and glamour of such leagues like the English Premiership, with their star-studded teams and world-class footballers, have also seen a huge chunk of what used to be the regular patrons of the domestic top-flight being converted into loyal followers of these foreign leagues.
Women’s football — which provided the country’s finest hour in football when the
Mighty Warriors qualified for the 2016 Olympics — has also been hit by serious challenges.
One of its junior national teams suffered a 0-7 thrashing at the hands of Botswana in a World Cup qualifier recently.
Boardroom battles have also dominated the domestic game, with gory stories dominating the back pages of the newspapers, poisoning a landscape already short on financial backers.
This has forced those who were possibly contemplating to come into the show, to reconsider their moves, for fear of suffering collateral damage. While the WSF summit will not offer an immediate solution to the serious challenges affecting domestic football, it could help open the eyes of its leaders to what is happening elsewhere.
More than 1 000 delegates and over 80 regional and global industry leaders are expected to attend the Durban conference.
Representatives from Serie A, Bundesliga, FIFA, UEFA, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletic Madrid, Juventus, Olympic Marseille, Inter Milan, Manchester United are also expected. This should offer the domestic football leaders with enough human expertise, to try and tap from, to wriggle their way from the sand trap that has seen their game lose a huge chunk of its value.
“The African continent must, and surely will, emerge as the winner of the upcoming WFS Africa, the first-ever African edition of what is the biggest event in the global football industry,’’ the organisers said in a statement.
“The initiative will bring together leaders of the sport from across the globe, presidents and CEOs of clubs, leagues, federations, broadcasters and other stakeholders under one roof from 17-18 March.
“Speakers will come together around common challenges such as the need to create sustainable value for sponsoring brands, how to face digital transformation, evolving competition formats or developing youth talent, among others.
“With FIFA having undertaken to plough millions into African football, WFS Africa will also discuss ways to maximise the financial grants to help grow the game in Africa.
“Ultimately, all discussions will be focused on how football can remain, not only the number one sport on the continent, but the biggest generator of income within their space and how this can act as a catalyst to drive social development. The speaker line-up features key decision-makers such as FIFA secretary-general Fatma Samoura, La Liga president Javier Tebas, Argentina legend Juan Sebastian Veron, who is now the chairman of Estudiantes, a club in his homeland, SAFA president Danny Jordaan, Isha Johansen, president of the Sierra Leone Football Federation, Morne du Plessis, chairman of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation South Africa.’’
Other key speakers expected are Kike Levy, the sport strategic partnership manager EMEA (Facebook), who has over eight years of sports media and marketing experience, and designed, consulted and implemented digital strategy for sports partners around the world.
He was instrumental in delivering some of the most socially-engaged sporting moments of last year, including La Liga, the UEFA Champions League, Copa Libertadores.
Jerome Perlemuter, who has, since April 2017, been the general secretary of the World Leagues Forum — which represents the professional leagues on a global level and encourage co-operation among them — is also expected to be the other keynote speaker. Steve Blues, the managing editor for Africa for Goal, who has been working with the continent’s content creators and brand partners “to deliver a localised global football experience for the millions of African football fans who engage with Goal every month’’, is also expected to be one of the main speakers.
“We are confident that our platform will play a key role in boosting the continent’s extraordinary potential,’’ Jan Alessie, the director of WSF, said in a statement.
“The most important leaders across the globe will have the chance to witness to what extent Africa, despite its challenges, is a land of opportunities.”
La Liga are the WSF global partners.