adminFrom Noel Munzabwa in Swaziland
SWAZILAND soccer might be ranked lower than Zimbabwe, but one thing that is certain is that their implementation of the Fifa/Caf Club Licensing is well ahead of us.My stay in this country, obviously temporary, which entered its third year on Thursday, has left me admiring the way soccer values the role played by public and press liaison officers.
I arrived at a time when our own son, Rodwell Dhlakama, then Manzini Sundowns coach, was facing a disciplinary hearing for allegedly bringing the game of football into disrepute. The charge laid against Dhlakama was after public media utterances he had made. The former Chrome Secondary School teacher was later let off the hook.
A lot has changed since that May, and the most positive change has been brought about by the implementation of the requirements (or partial implementation) of the club licensing needs. Today we have club public relations officers, obviously appointed on merit dominating the smart wars in pre and post-match write-ups.
Though coaches still give interviews, that exposure has been largely limited to purely technical ones – a far cry from the war and emotional ones. Even sponsors have loved the little bit of it with each tournament rewarding the Best PRO and overally rewarding all participating teams’ spokespersons with a dinner ball. You just got to love it.
The other big achievement is the rolling out of the Under-20 league. Our own is probably at teething stage. Evidently some clubs have no physical offices or lease agreements with owners of the various stadiums they use. I will not even want to talk of the qualified personnel listed among the various requirements such as the chief executive or chief operating officers and PROs. There is still no Under-20 national league running and some teams do not have junior football development structure plans at all.
Of much importance and worry is the absence of PROs hence some of the challenges clubs face dealing with the media and their other publics. One such is evident in the recent spat between Highlanders and the media. After a series of stories which were set by the hard-hitting “Kaindu to dump Highlanders” which was accompanied by the Zambian mentor’s picture, Bosso have taken the “we are hated” stance.
The response was evident before Bosso’s match against Hwange, when Highlanders used what they could to bar sports journalists from Barbourfields Stadium.
Furthermore, Bosso most likely felt another headline on Monday “Bosso drops points” and “Cracks emerge within Bosso” were a result of an orchestrated hit back by the media. Closely analysed, Bosso were ill-advised or whoever thought of barring the media on Sunday exposed the club’s lack of sound public and press liaison protocol.
Chronicle Senior Sports Editor Lovemore Dube was physically manhandled by police officers who must have been following orders not to allow journalists while we are told his Senior Sports Reporter, Sikhumbuzo Moyo and radio commentator with StarFM, a Zimpapers subsidiary, Muziwethu Hadebe, paid their way in.
Barring the media only adds some venom into the media in attempting to break through the barrier to any story and also removes any soft spot some scribes might have for Bosso. As a living victim of two such attacks – the first in 2006 when a police dog was set on us (together with the late Langa Magagula) on the orders of a then Chapungu secretary before a league match against Dynamos and the second being an attack by a then serving referee in 2010 – these attacks seemed to add more zeal in us to break through to the truth.
The Bosso, Chapungu and Hardbody cases are a clear indication of how our game dearly needs PROs who would handle responses in a professional way than a self-damaging route such as barring the media or setting dogs on journalists.
With a trained PRO, Highlanders could have been advised to allow Kaindu to give a statement on his stay at Bosso. That way suicidal responses would be avoided and equally the “media’s negative perception” as judged by Highlanders and its fans would not have happened. Now some clubs, if not all, feel some media personnel, already under independent editorial policies of their employers, should also serve as the clubs’ public relations officers purely by virtue of Noel Munzabwa being seen as a Highlanders supporter or Hwange sympathiser. No, no and a big NO.
We owe it to our editorial policies and our readers, not clubs. Your reliance on the media as PROs is even making you reluctant to hire club PROs who will highlight your own story.
Look at monthly “drinks bills” for some clubs which run into several thousands of dollars yet you yell so loud that it’s a cost to hire a club PRO.
Barring journalists from Barbourfields only gives more stories from a Chronicle understanding of situations and not a Highlanders one. Only a Highlanders hired PRO, Dynamos PRO and FC Platinum’s Chipo will produce the respective club’s view or balance it with those held by journalists.
Some prominent clubs even create interactive websites and social network platforms, even magazines, to tell their story. It is amazing in this day that a big club like Highlanders abandoned the Highlanders Bulletin and castigates social networks rather than embrace them into a collective effort to sell the Highlanders official story.
Only PROs will engage the media with a statement which will not be misquoted but allows media houses to angle their stories.Wake up and smell the coffee, hire your own PROs because the Fifa/Caf Club Licensing system requires you to. If they come on your doorstep you will not show Fifa and Caf Chronicle, as your PRO. Period!
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Online Reporter