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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
FORMER Highlanders’ right-back, Simon Sibanda has called on the club’s bonafide members to make a once-off contribution to keep Bosso afloat following the abrupt end of their sponsorship deal with NetOne.

Popularly known as Doink, Sibanda said instead of criticising the present leadership, club members have a role to play in helping keep the club afloat.

NetOne will pay the last instalment of the salaries deal to Highlanders at the end of this month.

The Highlanders players’ wage bill, excluding the technical team and secretariat is about $90 000.

“Things are certainly not good for the club and members have to step in. You can’t be making noise when you’re not contributing anything. Yes, some bought membership cards, but is that enough? Why don’t they agree to make contributions that will be used as a bailout fund,” said Sibanda.

The former defender also challenged the present leadership to consult past administrators and get tips on how they survived without sponsorship.

“Highlanders have been through such storms before and they always come out stronger. The present leadership lose nothing by asking how the past administrators sailed through past storms,” he said.

The Sports Leaders Institute of Zimbabwe (Sliz) challenged sporting institutions, particularly football clubs, to use the Covid-19 forced break to ponder on other ways of generating revenue away from the field of play.

The start of the domestic Premier Soccer League was indefinitely postponed after the government declared the coronavirus pandemic a State of Disaster and suspended all sporting activities.

Government prohibited gatherings of more than 50 people as part of measures to control the spread of the virus.

Last month Sliz president Russell Mhiribidi predicted that some sponsors will soon question the wisdom of paying salaries when there is no activity.

European clubs are already feeling the pinch and some are in the midst of negotiating for salary cuts.

“This is the time to seriously rethink on viable plans that can sustain sporting institutions beyond turnstiles. If you look at it, this is the time that clubs must think about add-ons in deals that they sign. Very few or none of these Premiership clubs can afford to play in an empty stadium, say if a decision is made to have games played behind closed doors,” said Mhiribidi.

“I don’t want to sound like a prophet of doom, but most clubs will struggle or even fold after this period, whose end we don’t know. You can’t have clubs simply surviving on gate takings alone. Why not look for extra income by selling original replicas, club memorabilia, go on massive membership drives that will sustain their operations.” — @ZililoR.