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Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Football Association (Zifa) Strategic Planning Committee chairperson Alois Masepe has called for a paradigm shift in the manner in which sport is viewed in the country.
Speaking during the committee’s first meeting in Bulawayo on Saturday, Masepe said sport in Zimbabwe is viewed as more of leisure yet it is a business that needs investment.
“We lose the plot when we define sport as recreational, as a luxury. I think we need to change our mindset to say sport is an industry, sport is a business. If it is a business, you need to invest into that business,” said Masepe.
“You need to tell the local authorities that they need to be serious about investing in sport, not only in football but in sport. As a country, we also need to be serious to say we are taking sport as an industry, as an industry that can create wealth, as an industry that can create employment.’
Masepe feels that there is a need to change the way sponsorship is seen in sport because it is an investment.
“When you fund sport infrastructure, when you fund sporting activities, let’s not say you are sponsoring, I want to say you are investing. If we start banishing the world sponsoring and replace it with investment, we will get it right, it’s the mindset here, I am saying it’s an industry and I am saying to Government if it is an industry, then it requires investment so that it creates employment and wealth,” he said.
Masepe said local authorities that are backing sporting infrastructure expansion should be seen as investors.
“If we say to the local authorities supporting sport infrastructure development, you are actually investing, that brings a different mindset altogether,” he said.
Masepe’s committee was appointed a fortnight ago by the Zifa executive committee under the leadership of interim president, Gift Banda. Other members of the committee are Pithias Shoko, Nhamo Tutisani, Nhlanhla Dube, Memory Mbondiya, Andrew Tapela, Kennedy Ndebele, Marc Duvillard, Theresa Maguraushe, Morris Banda, Moses Chunga and Nobioth Magwizi.
The strategic committee, which held its inaugural meeting on Saturday is meant to come up with a long term strategic plan which will guide the association’s activities and operations and consequently aid in growing football while producing competitive national teams. — Follow on Twitter @Mdawini_29
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