Delta have played their part

By The Standard | Dec. 22, 2019

THERE is good news coming from one of Zimbabwean sport’s biggest sponsor Delta Beverages that they have extended their marriage with the Premier Soccer League following the expiry of their three-year relationship with the top flight football league.

insidesport:with MICHAEL KARIATI

There was debate on one platform the whole of this week as to whether the Delta sponsorship is worth it, but the fact remains that football is being played in the country and that those who follow the game are enjoying it.

More important is the fact that every season, the PSL is having a full complement of its clubs and none of the clubs is missing its fixtures and come the year 2020, the PSL is guaranteed of all the 18 teams including newcomers Cranborne Bullets, Hwahwa, Bulawayo City, and Tenax.

Sadly though, the likes of TelOne, Chapungu, Hwange, and Mushowani Stars, have been swept away by the wind and will not be part of the gathering although they would have very much wanted to be.

There are some, who believe that the money that Delta are putting into football is little but in these harsh economic times there are a few who can make sacrifices like what the company has done, and instead, the football family should be grateful in having somebody like them.

In fact, it does not make any sense to raise our voices and say what we are getting is little when in the first place we had nothing.

What Zimbabweans should be talking about are the football stars, who have been born out of the marriage between the PSL and Delta who have gone on to make their names in foreign lands and are now household names in the Warriors set up.

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Or how Dynamos with four successive titles between 2011 and 2014 and now FC Platinum with three championships in a row between 2017 and 2019 have dominated the Zimbabwean game since the day Delta Beverages agreed to come on board in 2011.

What should also be on the fans’ lips is how the standards of the Zimbabwean game have gone up with Caps United and later FC Platinum — on two occasions — reaching the group stages of the Caf Champions League when clubs from other countries are still dreaming of such an achievement.

It should be placed on record that since the departure of Econet and the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ), no offer — apart from that of Delta — has come on the PSL table and the beverage manufacturers have even stayed on despite at one time facing problems with the relationship between the PSL and the Zimbabwe Football Association.

For those not in the know, Econet and the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ), made it clear that they would never come back into football after terminating their relationships with the top flight football league after finding Zimbabwean football difficult to associate with.

That Delta have agreed to stay on should be a cause for celebration considering the fact that there was a time in 2010 that football had no sponsor and it was saddening to see Motor Action and their striker Charles Sibanda, — who was voted Zimbabwe’s Soccer Star of the year — going without rewards for their efforts.

There were promises from some quarters that they would reward Sibanda for being crowned Zimbabwe’s most outstanding footballer for that year but the player would be the first to testify that nine years down the line he is still to receive that promised prize.

Inasmuch as some would want to call Joel Ngodzo’s RTGS $12 000 or US$600 Castle Soccer Star of the Year reward as little, it is better to have that little than nothing at all as was the case with Sibanda, and Josta would be the first to admit that he has his Christmas well covered.

When they came on board in 2011, Delta operations director Maxen Karombo made it clear that they were into football not to finance clubs but to bankroll the league and it was their hope that other partners would come on board to help sustain the running costs of the clubs.

This has seen the likes of NetOne, Nyaradzo, Zimplats, Mimosa and Rudland and George coming in to sponsor clubs, and these days the strikes over nonpayment of salaries that characterised the existence of clubs like Dynamos are long gone as their players are now guaranteed of their dues.

At one time, Supersport also joined the PSL band but later on left for reasons best known to themselves and the Premier Soccer League after five years of involvement with Zimbabwean football, taking it to other parts of the world on television.

That Delta have agreed to another three-year association with football when there are other sporting disciplines crying for their help is something that the football family should cheer, instead of looking down upon the finances they are placing on the table.

Delta have even gone a step further by bankrolling the Chibuku Super Cup — the only knockout tournament in the country — when the Zifa Cup has not been staged for over a decade due to the non-availability of a sponsor, and is unlikely to return anytime soon.

The question is: Do we have to go back to the year 2010 when the PSL did not have a sponsor to realise how important Delta’s friendship to football has been? Delta are playing their part in ensuring that football is being played and now it is up to the clubs to market themselves fully to the corporate world so that they can manage their own running costs in Zimbabwe’s elite football league.

It does not make any sense — for example — for a club like Mushowani Stars to cry over nonavailability of funds when at that time, they were the only Premiership club in Mashonaland Central — where they could easily have sourced for sponsorship from within their province.

What the PSL clubs should be doing right now is to come up with programmes that are acceptable to the corporate world — programmes that benefit not only themselves — but both parties — to attract sponsorship, instead of waiting for the league’s prize money.

Football is all about money and more importantly about corporate sponsorship and this is clearly evident in the final standings of the 2019 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League. Four of the top five placed teams, champions FC Platinum, second placed Chicken Inn, Ngezi Platinum, who finished fourth and ZPC Kariba just behind them, are corporate sponsored with only third placed Caps United, the individually sponsored team.

It is hoped that one day in future, all the clubs in the Premiership would be fully sponsored with salaries, winning bonuses and allowances for players and coaches, all paid for by the sponsor, instead of waiting for league table position money.

That might not happen now, but it is something that should not be overlooked considering the media attention that the sponsors of FC Platinum, Chicken Inn and Ngezi Platinum Stars have received which others might want to follow — of course, when the economic situation improves.

In the meantime, while it is acknowledged that Delta have played their part in bringing exciting times to Zimbabwean football, they should also take note of the money concerns of the football family and make some financial adjustments — in their new three-year agreement of course — which starts in the year 2020. lFor your views, comments, and suggestions [email protected] or WhatsApp on 0773 266 779.