adminFrom Robson Sharuko in FRANKFURT, Germany
SIX Zimbabwean sports journalists flew into Germany’s biggest financial hub yesterday for a five-day tour of duty that will see them getting an up-close and personal insight into how the Bundesliga has transformed itself into a powerful commercial and irresistible football force in the world.
The six journalists include former Zimbabwe international forward Alois Bunjira, who also runs his football academy Albun in his hometown of Chitungwiza, and believes the tour will provide invaluable insight into how such projects are run on a professional basis which has helped keep the Bundesliga alive and competitive with a regular supply of fresh and exciting talent.
Yesterday, on their first day on tour after an overnight flight from Johannesburg, the Zimbabwean journalists visited the Youth Academy of former German champions Eintracht Frankfurt, the Bundesliga club that gave Nigerian legend Jay Jay Okocha his gateway into a very successful football career in Europe.
The tour has been funded by SuperSport as part of its investment to develop the careers of Zimbabwean football writers and commentators as part of their broad project to take Zimbabwean football to another level through their six-year marriage with the Premier Soccer League.
“If you look at the programme, it deals with every aspect of the game, marketing, sponsorship and everything that has helped turn the Bundesliga into the top-flight league with the highest attendance figures in Europe and you can’t put a price to that,” said Bunjira, who played professional football in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
“These ideas are key if the journalists can use them to try and drive the agenda to develop our football, speaking from a position of authority since they have been here and seen it and helping our football leaders understand that things can be done in a certain way and it can work out wonders.
“I hope there will be more such tours for the media personnel in Zimbabwe because we badly need this and, for me, personally, it is key because of the academy that l am running back home because l hope to learn as much as l can from how they do it at their academies here and, given that this is the league of European club champions, you can’t get it wrong.”
Ithumeleng Senne, the communications manager of SuperSport Africa, and Liza Dziva, the Public Relations manager of Multichoice Zimbabwe, are also taking part in the tour.
The tour comes at a time when the Bundesliga is in its prime shape, in terms of its finances, and for the first time in its history, the German top-flight league generated over 2 billion euros, representing an increase of about 140 million euros across all revenue areas when compared to the previous season.
“This is particularly remarkable given that the Bundesliga only reached the 1 billion euro revenue mark for the first time in the 2001-2002 season,” the Bundesliga says in their official report for the year 2013.
“It has therefore doubled its income in just 10 years.
“The eighth consecutive revenue record is accompanied by an almost equivalent increase in expenditure, but the bottom line for the Bundesliga is a surplus of approximately 55 million euros after tax.
“Fourteen of the 18 clubs achieved a positive result, more than ever in the previous four years. This is positive proof that the quest for sporting success is also shaped by good financial sense.
“The Bundesliga is the second most profitable league in Europe after the English Premier League. No other major football league in Europe has as balanced a revenue mix as the Bundesliga.”
Today the touring party will visit the Deutshe FuBball Liga, who run all the domestic and international sales of commercial rights of the Bundesliga, and will receive an insight into the German Professional Football presented by Dirk Meyer-Bosse.
The sales activities are divided into three lines of business — audio visual rights, sponsoring and licensing and media and advertising.
Later this afternoon, the participants will hear a presentation of Youth Academies and Structure in German Football by Andreas Nagel before Patrick Stuber presents a paper on worldwide sales of Bundesliga media rights.
The evening session will feature a presentation on international television formats, on-site activities and events by Dominic Scholler and Katja Beck and another presentation on product management and strategic marketing by Steffen Busch. At the end of today’s workshop, the visiting journalists will be asked to do some story editing.
Tomorrow, the visiting delegation will have an interaction with the managing director of DFL Sports Enterprises, Jorg Daubitzer and will watch the Bundesliga match between Augusburg, the last club that Zimbabwe international striker Knowledge Musona played for here last season, and Borussia Monchengladbach.
On Saturday the visiting delegation will also watch the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund, who were the losing finalists in the all-German Champions League final last season, and Freiburg. The Germans might have a host of foreign players on their doorstep but they pride themselves in developing their home-grown talent.
“Investment in young players, amateurs and academies, which have become a widely recognised mark of quality in German football, increased by just under 6 million euros to nearly 77 million euros,” the Bundesliga said in their report.
“With 44 293 spectators per match on average, the Bundesliga set a new record and remained the world’s football league with the highest number of spectators in total, 13,6 million visitors attended the matches.”
Online Reporter