Scott Vincent to Tee-Off with The Masters Champion

Mismanagement Bedeviling Corporate Sponsorship in Local Sport

 Zimbabwe (News Of The South) – Whilst the many sportsmen have added their voices to the outcry of lack of corporate sponsorship in local sport it is imperative to consider the reasons behind the recent fallouts of between corporates and sports organizations.

As a corporate organization a name is everything in the industry and the administrators of our sport seem to always let it slip through their fingers costing the sport valuable sponsorship.

Most organizations therefore sponsor not just as an act of goodwill but to increase their brand equity and advertise their brand to improve competitiveness and when they do not get what they had bargained for they simply pull out or try different ventures.

Now when an organization which is being sponsored and utterly fails in their obligation by either involving themselves in some scandals and letting it spill over which might end up ruining the image of the sponsor themselves for they would have taken over the responsibility of the wellbeing of the organization.

It therefore becomes an egg in the face of the sponsors themselves and this is one of the biggest disadvantages of sponsoring badly administrated organizations (which has become the norm in most of our local sports) and also among the top fears of the sponsors themselves.

Now the outcry by most of our local sports bemoaning the lack of sponsorship has been received with sympathy by the public but is they worth this sympathy they constantly receive.

Recently the Lion Lager National Rugby League sparked a lot of empathy over the uncertainty of their sponsorship being in doubt as the league started without a sponsor.

What is worse is that it came at a time when the sport was beginning to grow significantly and they even added another franchise to the league bringing the tally of teams to 9.

It is equally surprising is that Zimbabwean Rugby Union is totally forgetting their mishandling of the issue of racism in the sport which was raised up by the former Sables Team Manager Losson Mtongwiza and ended up in him retiring from the sport after the letter in which had written to the ZRU president Jon Falkenburg was leaked to the press.

Though ZRU played down allegations of racism it created so much of a mess which ended up involving that I personally believe was one of the important reasons why Delta has not decided to renew their sponsorship with the league for not only did it bring the name of Delta into disrepute but the whole of the rugby fraternity and starting a very sensitive age old debate of racism in Zimbabwean sport.

If you put two and two and two together Delta is well known for sponsoring sports in our country and it is the leading corporate sponsor of sport in Zimbabwe as they bankroll well over 4 sports in the country and this is also the case down south as they are the main sponsors of their three main national sports teams and have therefore covered themselves in glory in terms of social responsibility in sports.

In spite of some of the charitable motives that come with corporate sponsorship the misleading view is that most of these corporates are just sponsoring Zimbabwean sport just so that they can evade tax but since that is not the crux of the matter , this sponsorship has stopped coming in handy for many sports organizations.

It is also funny that most organizations completely forget the fact no one likes to let dirty hands handle their finances and many corporate prefer to sponsor other charitable societies.

Zimbabwean sport had been enjoying a strong backing from its corporates but it then shifted from the corporates and many corporates now favor individual sponsorship as compared to organizational sponsorship with others deciding to stop sponsoring sport organizations till they get their houses in order.

This includes companies such as Coca Cola who prefer to sponsor a schools tournament as opposed to pouring the money into the indescribable organization by the name of Zifa which is the main organization in charge of football in our country.

It has also been shrugged off by probably one of their hottest properties Econet who vowed never to return to football again citing more important causes after having a dance with the devil himself by sponsoring the league through their brand Buddie which ended in a in disarray and it is also satirical that recently the same company that they had a fallout with was also arguing with Banc ABC in a wrangle over kits which ended up in Dynamos not getting their due rewards for winning the tournament for they had failed to follow `the rules of the tournament`.

Surely one then wonders whether these squabbles were not just company rivalries but cases of pure mismanagement for it should be stipulated from the word go.


Though they had fallen out with football Econet also sponsored the once prestigious sport of cricket in Zimbabwe taking over their T20 sponsorship which also ended in misery as ZC slowly became a laughing stock and no longer had any value in the sponsorship deal and also the franchise system being left without a sponsor.

Though the cry shall continue until eternity this problem of the lack of corporate sponsorship shall forever be prolonged unless the organizations themselves get their houses in order and start honoring their end of the bargain for though we might cry foul there is virtually nothing to cry about for surely most corporates are willing to increase their brand equity through the most popular medium which is sport.