Sundaymail Editor
Arthur Choga
Local football clubs are largely homeless, especially those that are not backed by mining companies.
The mining teams are also secured in their home grounds, and this has always been the case. Clubs will point to Rufaro Stadium or Barbourfields Stadium as their home, but this is not true in the strictest sense of the word.
If we were to ask for club letterheads, then addresses on these documents would be most interesting.
FC Platinum, Ngezi Platinum and Triangle have what can be classified as home grounds, while the rest are paying for premises they use.
Highlanders and Bulawayo Chiefs have sports clubs where they conduct their business, and this is highly commendable.
Highlanders have been pioneering in this regard.
They have held on to their sports club and kept it running as a central meeting point for club activities.
Local authorities own Rufaro, Gwanzura, Barbourfields, Luveve and White City Stadium.
Mutare City Council owns Sakubva Stadium, while the Sports and Recreation Commission runs the National Sports Stadium.
Every time clubs play a match in these grounds, they pay a levy to the local authority and they also pay for water and assorted rates.
They pay for security services, and pay tellers who man entry points as cashiers.
Clubs pay for the referees and also for the private security company that monitors gates and secures gate-takings.
They pay a levy to the PSL for tickets.
Once these expenses are paid, the home team takes 100 percent of the gate-takings.
A hundred percent of little is little and lately football attendance has not been great.
Motor Action FC (God bless Eric Rosen’s soul) showed a sustainable template for club management.
They took over a lease on Callies Sports Club in Eastlea, invested in the pitch and turned it into their home ground.
Motor Action had used Sakubva and Marondera’s Rudhaka Stadium as home grounds before taking the bold step.
Amazulu FC, which was owned by Delma Lupepe, also set up their own sports club and used it as their home ground.
Football’s homelessness is partly historical.
When country clubs and sports clubs were set up, the key sports that were there were cricket and rugby.
Tennis, squash and bowling also tended to get some space, while golf clubs secured large tracts of land to set up courses within the city environs.
Football was popular in high-density areas.
Whether this was induced or natural, it is hard to tell.
However, each high-density area had communal football grounds.
The more famous among these being Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield and Number 7 Grounds in Mbare.
Each town can identify such spaces, that is, if they have not been converted into residential stands.
Football clubs sprang from these areas, many of them fiercely territorial.
This led to CAPS being labelled the Mufakose team, Black Aces drawing the majority of their players from Highfield, while Dynamos aligned with Mbare.
These clubs trained in these areas and played in local stadiums.
Their fans lived near the stadium and the teams ended up identifying with a home that was not their home.
Dynamos once famously secured land under the leadership of Lincoln Mutasa in the 1980s but the fate of this land is a subject of discussion in another platform.
The biggest clubs in Zimbabwe by following are Dynamos, Highlanders and CAPS United.
However, only Highlanders have their own premises.
These clubs would be related by the same measure to the South African trio of Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns. The three South African teams have grown into major corporate organisations with facilities at Mayfair (Pirates), Chloorkop (Sundowns) and Naturena (Chiefs).
Local clubs have built brands in Africa and some of their players have gone on to achieve glory across the region.
It is sad that most local clubs cannot point to a place they call home.
Local authorities, clubs and sporting associations should look at the possibility of empowering clubs to get their own spaces to operate from.
The clubs should build business cases that allow them to secure such spaces and build business partnerships and portfolios around their brands.
Zambia and South Africa have shown the way to sustainable clubs.
A home address is the first step.
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