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Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
THE country’s most popular football clubs, Highlanders and Dynamos, are meeting in Victoria Falls to strategise on how they can transform themselves into sustainable businesses that can survive in the absence of sponsorship.

Both clubs recently scored a three-year sponsorship deal with Sakunda Holdings.

In a rare development in the history of the two rival clubs, board members and executive committees of both teams as well as their stakeholders sat under one roof yesterday in a Victoria Falls Hotel to plan about the future at a workshop organised by Sakunda Holdings.

They will, however, retreat to their respective camps today and tomorrow to craft their strategies in an effort to find ways of remaining resilient post the Sakunda three-year deal.

The first session was a personal brand building facilitated by personal and corporate transformation strategist Zwelibanzi Ndlovu, who challenged participants to have a generational thinking mindset and ability to make a sacrifice for a better life tomorrow.

“It’s good to be here as Bosso and DeMbare, but it’s crucial to build a personality. This is not about Highlanders and Dynamos, but about you individuals,” he said.

Highlanders acting chief executive officer and spokesperson Ronald Moyo said Covid-19 had taught the club not to depend on traditional revenue streams (sponsorship and gate takings), hence the need for creative and innovative ways of generating revenue for sustainability in the darkest hours.

“This is a strategic business workshop because we are looking mainly at the business side of football.

The reality is that the current sponsorship that we have with Sakunda has a three-year lifeline and we are cognisant that we need to survive beyond the sponsorship and remain a vibrant club.

“So we are here to strategise how we can be self-sustainable post this sponsorship as we have seen how difficult things can be for a club of our nature in the event that we don’t have a sponsor.

This workshop is more biased towards the business aspect of football and trying to find solutions,” said Moyo.

In short, the workshop seeks to capacitate the two clubs to be able to generate revenue.

Dynamos chairman Isaiah Mupfurutsa said lack of sustainability strategies have been a challenge for the country’s biggest clubs.

He said coming together as DeMbare and Highlanders will go a long way in inculcating a culture of tolerance and maturity among supporters.
“The purpose of us coming here is to set ground and have a paradigm shift as we adopt new ways of doing things.

We have brought different stakeholders who we believe are representatives of all stakeholders of the club and we expect to get contributions from them.

“This is really fantastic because we should have a culture of sharing best methods and solving problems together.

We should learn to work together, we are not enemies, we are only rivals for the duration of the game and thereafter we are brothers.

It’s just competition and we would love to have more of these and the moment we start working together, it will also improve the behaviour of our fans in the stadia to see that there is brotherhood and no need for animosity on an off the field,” he said.

He commended Sakunda Holdings for fostering professionalism in the country’s football by making clubs plan and craft a vision, mission and goals.

Sakunda representative Nqobile Magwizi said the primary objective is to make a difference in people’s lives through sport.

“We believe our getting involved in soccer is a good platform that will bring about the correct impact and change people’s lives at all levels during these three years. Each team is doing its own strategy and the common denominator is the sponsor.

“Our desire is to be able to cultivate a culture of excellence and we need a plan that informs that excellence and this is the platform to plan that roadmap as we want to see ourselves celebrating our own successes here,” Magwizi said. – @ncubeleon