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Eddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER footballer Terrence Malunga is set to host the first-ever Zimbabwe Football Forum which brings together key stakeholders with the aim of exchanging ideas on how to professionalise and transform the struggling domestic football industry.
Malunga, a former Zimbabwe youth international and Premiership title winner with Gunners in 2009, has teamed-up with another ex-footballer, Clinton Tinotenda Matiza, to drive the narrative through their sports management and consultancy company, TinMahn Sports.
The inaugural Zimbabwe Football Forum has been slated for October 14 in Harare.
Malunga said the inaugural conference is targeting all the stakeholders in the game who include supporters, the Government, ZIFA, corporates, football players, football clubs, entrepreneurs and media.
The organisers have also roped in key players such as the Premier Soccer League, educational institutions, stadium owners, coaches, administrators, scouts, intermediaries, sports analysts, fitness trainers, club owners and many other interested parties.
Six international speakers — four from South Africa and one each from Zambia and Tanzania — are expected to address the participants.
“This is a football business forum, the aim being to provide a platform where we congregate all the critical football leaders within the industry and all other stakeholders with similar interests in the sport to explore football as a business and to try and devise ways that we can transform and professionalise it.
“I am a former footballer but I left the game a bit early to pursue other things in the academic world and now I am back in football,” said Malunga.
“The same applies for Clinton. What we realised is that football is not being treated as a business, but a pastime. But if you look at the global football market, it is a multi-billion business.
“So what we are trying to do is to incite conversation and discussion around football business and in the process generate business and networking opportunities.
“We also want to provide an open platform where we can have skills, experience and knowledge interchange,” said Malunga.
Some of the topics to be discussed at the forum include Football Business and Investment, Corporate Structures, Governance & Control Systems, Financial Planning, Budgeting, Reporting & Control, Revenue Generation, Football Marketing and Sponsorship, Football and Digital Transformation, Roles of Football Intermediaries.
The organisers are also set to confer one of the unsung heroes of local football development with the inaugural Football Development Dedication Award.
This honour will be given out every year to outstanding individuals in recognition of their dedication to the development of football through their life-long commitment to training, mentoring, counselling, and skills impartation on young players (both boys and girls).
The forum, which also seeks to incite creativity, innovation and investment within the ever-changing football industry, is the first of its kind in Zimbabwe.
“With a number of both local and regional speakers and panellists lined up to tackle some of the most pertinent topics or issues in modern football, ZFF promises to be a panacea to the contemporary challenges.
“I am therefore calling on all football stakeholders, corporate institutions, educational institutions and football-loving individuals to partner with us to lead and pioneer a positive change for our local football industry.
“ZFF 2022 is being held in Harare and will annually be moved to other different cities, regions and locations within Zimbabwe,” said Malunga.
The former Zimbabwe Under-17 and Under-23 player is now a banker and lawyer by profession, and he holds a Masters Degree in Banking and Finance Law. Currently he is studying Sports Law.
He won the Premiership with Gunners in 2009 and played in the CAF Champions League.
Matiza, who is the business development director of TinMahn Sports, also left the game early, to pursue a degree in Business Management.
He also has a Masters in Strategic Management and Corporate Governance. He grew up in the CAPS United ranks and left football at 20 to pursue academics. His aim is to blend football knowledge and academics to a greater effect.
The forum is expected to be launched next month.
Online Reporter