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Mgcini Nkolomi

THERE are conflicting figures over the debt weighing down the country’s oldest football club — Highlanders FC — but the bottom line is that the institution is sinking and a solution needs to be found fast. Being a community club which has remained true to the values of its founding fathers has meant that it survives on the benevolence of its supporters and paid up members but in these harsh economic times, does that model work?

Has the club remained stuck in fossilised and romanticised ideas of the past which have no place in modern football where big bucks rule? We pose these questions in light of revelations that the club owes more than $500 000 (though the figure is under scrutiny since board chairman Mgcini Nkolomi proffered a sum close to $1 million last week).

Whatever the figure, it is alarming that the club has been nursing the debt which has been ballooning because of interest charges etc without finding a solution. Highlanders chairman Peter Dube has called a crisis meeting with card carrying members at the clubhouse today, hardly a fortnight after their mid-year extraordinary general meeting – emphasising the gravity of the situation and the need to find urgent solutions.

He defended their decision to call for a meeting less than a month after the club’s mid-year assembly. “The notable difference with the EGM is that then the club was seeking authority to go ahead and institute changes and now we want to try to move the club out of a negative financial situation.

We want to highlight the position of the club to members because going forward, things don’t look good and drastic measures have to be taken to save this institution,” said Dube. He believes that collectively, Highlanders will come up with concrete solutions that will prevent the club from sinking.

“If drastic measures don’t impact on the constitution of the club, they will be immediately implemented. We’re looking at coming up with real fundraising processes that can immediately set off. If measures suggested on Saturday affect the constitution, then they will have to follow due process,” Dube said.

He dismissed notions that drastic measures include selling the club. “It will be unimaginable to think Highlanders will be taken over by somebody.

Whatever is done will be done to protect the interests of the club and the community so that at the end of the day Highlanders remains a people’s team,” he said.

Dube’s remarks came amid frenetic activity at the club, with senior figures forced to deny reports last weekend that plans were afoot to sell the club.

The Bosso supremo has also explained that while their principal sponsors BancABC cater for players’ salaries, other financial obligations like winning bonuses and the day to day running of the club were borne by Highlanders.

To illustrate the grim situation at the club, while other teams are busy bolstering their squads during this mid-season transfer market, Bosso cannot afford to do so despite losing their chief striker Knox Mutizwa to South Africa and being on the verge of seeing on-fire Bruce Kangwa signing for a Tanzanian team. The mandarins at the club are talking tough and have urged members to brace for a bleak future, even hinting at the collapse of the institution.

Of course, this would be unacceptable to their multitudes of followers but they need to act to save the club. Community clubs are thriving elsewhere across the globe because they adopted sound business models which are working for them. In England virtually every small town has a football club and although they are “owned” by the people, they are run along commercial lines.

For example, Newcastle United is a registered private company where people buy shares on the stock exchange. Billionaire Mike Ashley owns the club through a controlling stake but the majority of the people of Newcastle view the institution as theirs. In Spain, Barcelona are a registered association instead of a limited company but are run along strict commercial lines with members purchasing cards at market value. Across the Limpopo, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, while they are people’s teams from Soweto, are run by the Motaung and Khoza families with serious backing from sponsors.

Granted, Highlanders are operating in a depressed economy but for a club of their size, it is not inconceivable that they should be attracting corporate support. Their long-standing relationship with BancABC is testament of their appeal and good corporate governance tenets and we feel they should refine their model to suit modern trends. There is nothing wrong with adopting models that have worked for community clubs elsewhere but whatever they settle for should be endorsed by their membership.

We applaud them for reducing membership fees from $50 to $5 as this will go a long way in boosting their coffers.