adminis enough for a DeMbare or Bosso fan to watch all his team’s 15 home league matches
Back in the days, when we were growing up, Adidas was a huge part of our sporting lives and, in some cases, the brand with the three stripes was the only one that we knew.
Nike wasn’t as big as it is today and, when you consider that until 1978 there was nothing in this world called Nike Inc, the American company that became a global icon, maybe you get a better understanding of all this.
Until ’78, Nike was called Blue Ribbon Sports, a small US firm founded by a university track athlete and his coach, which specialised in distributing products made by Japanese shoe maker, Onitsuka Tiger, now called Asics.
It wasn’t until ’82 that Nike aired its first television adverts, during the coverage of the New York Marathon, and the arrival of some big profile athletes like basketball legend Michael Jordan, and their association with him, powered the company’s phenomenal global growth.
For some of us, who in ’82 were already Grade Six kids good enough to play football for the primary school’s first team and also qualify for membership of the athletics team, Adidas was the brand that we knew and had grown up with. It was such a huge part of our lives, back then, that even when we went to the local shops to try and buy some running shorts, those tiny ones with a V-shape on the thighs, we would tell the shop-keeper that we wanted an Adidas.
It was such a fashionable and powerful brand, especially in football, and by ’85 even Liverpool, the greatest football club in the world of that era, had been recruited into the Adidas family and were wearing kit designed by the brand with the three stripes.
Adidas’ influence, even on the domestic scene, was well pronounced and a look at the kit that was used by the dominant Dynamos team of the early part of the ’80s, that super side that won four straight league titles and, on average, was one of the best six sides on the continent, and you will see the brand with the three stripes.
But, until Wednesday night, Adidas were not here as a partner, which could play a small part in the development of our football, but just as a brand that we liked, because it made some good kits, and our football clubs used those kits because they were fashionable.
Until Wednesday night, DeMbare marketed the Adidas brand, in the Champions League, on a voluntary basis, with nothing coming into the coffers of the Harare giants, even though their considerable success, on the continent, against a background of poor funding, made them such an attractive and powerful marketing brand.
As David Mandigora and his men battled, and defied, incredible odds, in a country weighed down by a crippling hyperinflationary environment in 2008 to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League, British newspaper, The Guardian, noted that they were writing the greatest football success story in the world that year.
Images of Benjamin Marere, who scored a stunning winner as they triumphed in Tunisia with a 1-0 win over Etoile du Sahel, were splashed around the world, and showed a player in a blue Adidas strip but, for all its marketing strength, in DeMbare’s world this was just charity work for the iconic German firm.
Now, after Wednesday night, all that changes.
Both Dynamos and Highlanders are now official members of the Adidas global football family and in that group you will see some very big names like Orlando Pirates, just across the Limpopo, European champions Bayern Munich, Europa champions Chelsea and Spanish aristocrats Real Madrid.
For some of us, it has taken a full 43 years of life on this planet, to see such a marriage between local football clubs and a technical partner, with such a powerful global profile, come true and, for Dynamos, it all happened in the year the Glamour Boys turned 50.
For Bosso it has been an even longer wait, 87 years to be precise, for them to finally tie the knot with a technical partner of such powerful global repute.
For BancABC, the all-weather friend of Highlanders and Dynamos who took a calculated risk, to partner themselves with the two biggest brands in local football at a time when the image of domestic football was, at best, in tatters, and at worst, a mirror of something you find stuck right in the depths of an overflowing sewerage pond, it took three years to strike this deal.
While the norm in the world of professional football today is that a kit sponsor like Adidas will actually pay a substantial amount, usually running into million of dollarss, to provide that equipment for a club like Chelsea, Bayern or Real Madrid, it would be unreasonable, on our part, to believe that could be the starting point for our marriage.
Yes, our two football giants are brands but their pulling power is predominantly local, they have only started featuring regularly on SuperSport this year, they are totally ignored by their national television station when they play and none of them have made an impact, in terms of Champions League success, in the past four years.
When you consider all the battering, which our national football brand has taken on the international scene in the past three years, dominated by a match-fixing scandal that never appears to end, Ballon d’Orgate, Centralgate, you name it, we should consider it a major coup that, for a start, a company like Adidas is even prepared to come into bed with us.
There will be a lot of prophets of doom, there will be others with valid questions, there will be others who just want to rubbish it because it has been done by Highlanders and Dynamos, and not them, and I won’t be surprised if it emerges that there are some, within us, who even wrote directly to Adidas trying to convince them that this wasn’t the right country, or the right clubs, for such a marriage.
When you have been used to the darkness and, suddenly, you are exposed to a lot of light, it strikes you, you feel dizzy, you stagger, you lose your balance, that’s precisely what we will do as a football family, in the first few weeks and in the first few months, as we digest the landmark events of Wednesday night and where they leave us, the doors they open, the possibilities we can now imagine.
It’s the first of a kind for domestic football, with a company of the stature of Adidas, and there will be doubts here, questions there, speculation here, criticism there, because it’s something that we have never seen before and it’s a world, shining brightly with lights, where we have never been exposed before.
A half a loaf that will always be better than nothing
The easy temptation is to look at the smaller picture, and say that Orlando Pirates get a substantial sum in terms of direct capital injection from Adidas for their partnership, and dismiss the DeMbare/Bosso deal as a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury but one that signifies nothing. But everyone starts from somewhere and my humble submission is that we should toast this as a landmark development, not because of what it offers to both Dynamos and Highlanders in terms of returns from replica sales, but in terms of the big doors that it is likely to open.
If a reputable company like Adidas is prepared to go into bed with you, it sends some positive signals about yourself to other technical partners and potential sponsors and that is the window of opportunity that the two Zimbabwe football giants should seize and open.
It reminds me of the day Delta decided to return to the domestic football trenches and sponsor the Premiership, through Castle Lager, two years ago. Those who looked at the small picture dismissed their investment as insignificant, simply because the winners of the marathon would get US$70 000 in 2011, the first year of this three-year deal, without considering the reality that winners of the previous championship in 2010, Motor Action, had received nothing, not even a cent.
In just a space of 12 months, the winners’ cheque had jumped from zero to US$70 000 and the team that would finish last in the championship race would get US$5 000, just 12 months after the team that finished first picked nothing for being champions.
But, still, those who wanted to look at the smaller picture chose to ignore all that and even up to this day there are a lot of brickbats that are thrown regularly in the direction of Delta, for injecting peanuts into the championship, when the reality is that their decision to partner the PSL turned into a kiss of life for the league.
Once Delta committed themselves to partnering the league, as the main sponsor whose name would be mentioned every time the league was mentioned, they injected a huge dosage of corporate goodwill into the domestic Premiership, sprayed it with a deodorant that was both magnetic and refreshing and opened the doors for others to come on board.
In the corporate corridors, where major decisions are made, the talking point became the same – if a blue-chip company like Delta can take the risk, who are we, as small as we are as a company, to believe that our reputation will take a battering if we go into bed with the PSL?
For the PSL, the world had changed.
Some will say the seven percent, from the sale of every jersey that will be remitted to the two teams, is a small margin and US$3,50 from every US$50 that will exchange hands for every shirt sold really looks like a small figure from a distance.
But neither team spends a cent in the importation of the jerseys into this country up to their arrival on the shop floor and, as advised by the BancABC managing director Hashmon Matemera yesterday, the bank is being charged duty, for the importation of the jerseys, per kilogramme.
An initial quantity of 5 000 jerseys have been brought into this country with the two giants taking an equal share of 2 500 shirts and, if they are all sold, the amount to be remitted into their accounts is US$8 750 for each club. So, for the first time in the history of these two clubs, you have the possibility of 2 500 of their fans, wearing replica jerseys, at either Rufaro or Barbourfields and, together as a group, they have contributed US$8 750 into the coffers of either club.
To me, that’s a signal of progress because, in the past, you had 20 000 people in the stadium, all wearing club colours, but with nothing having come into the coffers of these teams.
The trick, for both DeMbare and Bosso, to make this relationship count, in terms of immediate financial returns of a substantial nature, is to drive the volumes of sale because 25 000 replica jerseys sold will give Dynamos a net income of US$87 500, 50 000 jerseys will boost the club income to US$165 000 and 1000 000 jerseys will bring in US$330 000 into the club. If 300 000 people can be found to buy this jersey then the direct income into the Dynamos account will move past the US$1 million.
It’s certainly not the world but, given where Dynamos were for 50 years and where Highlanders were for 87 years, this is a refreshing step in the right direction and, as the Chinese say, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. The half of the loaf that the two giants are getting, in addition to quality kit, is certainly better than nothing at all.
Is this jersey priced beyond
the average fan?
Given the state of our economy today, the income levels of a typical civil servant, the earnings of a typical informal trader and the high cost of living, you tend to understand those who are crying out, loud and clear, that US$50 for the jersey is way beyond their reach.
It’s understandable because US$50, as I argued elsewhere in this newspaper yesterday, is enough for a DeMbare or Bosso fan to watch all his team’s 15 home league matches, including the ones against CAPS that are usually overpriced to US$5, and still remain with US$1 as change.
The majority of the Bosso and DeMbare fans are poor people, who look at their football club as a source of inspiration to drive their thoughts away from the tough daily grind, just to stay alive and keep the family fed, under a roof and going to school, and they feel the pain when even a US$2 swing, in the price of the cheapest ticket, is effected.
Every dollar, to these people, means a lot and they go to extra-ordinary lengths, just to raise US$3 every other weekend, to pay their way into the stadium and support the football clubs of their dreams.
This background clearly tells us that this jersey is overpriced, for the majority of the fans who back these two teams, and most of them will struggle to raise theUS$50 needed for the replica and will continue to find comfort, and identity, in their old stuff.
But those who bankrolled this deal had to make a choice, to go with real quality and in this case Adidas and make a huge step in the right direction, even when such a move was bound to affect the majority of the teams’ support base, or to switch to some funny backyard suppliers, who would sell the jerseys at US$10 each, but without any guarantee that they will last.
Crucially, from the sponsors’ point of view and for the long-term interests of both Dynamos and Highlanders, did it make business sense to go into bed with some backyard supplier, whose partnership will not have any potential to convince other investors that this is a project worth looking at, the way one with Adidas does?
By bringing in genuine material, which is the way to go, they knew there was a price attached to it and Orlando Pirates fans paid an average US$68 for their Adidas replica jersey in the just-ended season, which means that our jerseys are well within the affordable range for such quality stuff.
Granted, the South Africans don’t even need to import their stuff, it’s made locally, and they don’t incur duties like import tax but, still, it costs more.
Without a doubt, the average fan won’t afford it, and it’s sad because they really want that true association with their team, but there was no other way of doing this business, no short cuts that could be found because once a decision was made that Adidas was the brand, the cost was inevitable.
In terms of what goes into the coffers of the two giants, it’s also unlikely that going for a cheaper backyard partner would have meant a sudden surge in income because for every five people, who would buy a US$10 cheaper shirt, you only need one to buy the US$50 replica shirt.
A legend is remembered in Tsholotsho today
The good people of Tsholotsho will stage a memorial football tournament today to remember Adam Ndlovu and, fittingly, the tournament will feature Highlanders Legends and Amavevane, a social club from Bulawayo with deep Bosso connections.
It’s refreshing to realise that, amongst us, are people who still have hearts and care and don’t turn their backs on heroes, as and when they depart this arena of the living.
That the people of Tsholotsho are doing it should not be the end of the story because Adam Ndlovu was more than just a legend for his local community but a giant, in this country, and special events to remember his life and times and should, with time, take a national scope.
What were the football gods trying to do?
So, the football gods decided that, on the hour mark, in the 2013 Uefa Europa Cup final, one of the centre forwards would score and Fernando Torres put Chelsea ahead at the Amsterdam Arena against Benfica after 60mins. Then the same football gods decided that, on the hour mark, the 2013 Uefa Champions League final, one of the centre forwards would score and Mario Mandzukic powered Bayern Munich ahead at Wembley against Borussia Dortmund after 60 mins.
So, the football gods decided that, eight minutes after the first goal in the Europa Cup final, the team that was trailing would get an equaliser, through a penalty converted by one of the forwards, and Benfica levelled from the spot in the 68th minute through Oscar Cardozo.
Then the same football gods decided that, eight minutes after the goal in the Champions League final, the team that was trailing would get an equaliser, through a penalty converted by one of forwards, and Dortmund levelled from the spot in the 68th minute through Ilkay Gundogan.
So, the football gods decided that the winning goal, in a 2-1 scoreline, in the Europa Cup final will be scored in the very last minute and Chelsea defender, Branislav Ivanovic headed home in the last minute of time added on to win the game and trophy.
Then the same football gods decided that the winning goal, in a 2-1 scoreline, in the Champions League final will be scored in the very last minute and Dutchman, Arjen Robben who had hit 24 shots in three Champions League final without scoring, and ending on the losing side on two previous occasions, buried the winner for Bayern in the last minute of regulation time.
Incredible, isn’t it?
It’s a beautiful football world and the people of Karoi are smiling today and the Karoi United patron, Albert Matsika, told me this week it’s a community that has united behind its football club which has won seven out of seven league games, scored 24 goals and conceded only two from penalties.
To God Be The Glory!
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharitooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
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