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June 27dayBotswana football fans have learned that one of the country’s model football clubs, VTM Football Club, will cease operations as a professional football club. Due to a severe lack of resources, the club has decided not to participate in the upcoming Premier League season. Instead, they are downsizing and focusing on grassroots football development. For many, the failure of the VTM FC project, once seen as a model of professionalism, is incomprehensible. As difficult as it is, it demonstrates the struggles that most football clubs go through, some of which have even fewer resources than VTM FC.
The collapse of VTM FC has made this clear to many, as one commentator on Facebook put it, “Running a football club is very difficult, especially without sponsors.” And in a league without sponsors, the challenges become even more apparent.
Molefi Obenne, a football commentator, writer and administrator, said the collapse of VTM FC clearly showed how serious the problem of lack of resources was. He said, “From the outside, the team seemed financially sustainable and stable because they built a small stadium to attract revenue.”
“Their resignations show that there is more to it than that. The lack of resources has had a huge impact on Botswana football, making it almost impossible for the team to survive.”
Radio host and sports journalist Kagiso Fox Phatsimo agrees with this view, arguing that lack of resources makes football difficult and not a profitable venture.
“Of course, football is not profitable in Botswana. Case study: a player earns 3,000 pesos per month. You have 25 players, earning 3,000 pesos x 25 = 75,000 pesos per month. A season is 9 months, that’s 75,000 pesos x 9 = 675,000 pesos. Add travel expenses, hotels and meals, clothing and equipment, etc., and you get an expenditure of nearly 1 million pesos. And that’s just for the 25 players, not including administrative and technical staff. Even if you win 1 million pesos at the end of the season, it won’t be enough. Just go to VTM and ask,” he said.
Phatsimo went on to add that this lack of resources permeates into player development, meaning we are unable to produce world-class players. “We are unable to produce a large number of players from a young age because resources do not allow it. This has a negative impact on our development drive and we lag behind countries that have the proper resources and equipment to be able to introduce the right things at the right age to prepare young players for the world stage,” said Phatsimo.
Looking ahead, both Obene and Fatsimo believe that football must do the basics to change the sport’s fortunes. Fatsimo said that in order to secure the future of the sport, football clubs should hire professionals directly rather than picking them based on their popularity.
Obernai shares the same view. “We have to do the math and the science. Does our population allow us to have so many teams in a single area? How many people like football? How many people are willing to buy tickets? How many people can afford them? What resources do we have? How can we best use them? If we answer these questions, we will gain something.”
Obenne added: “The biggest problem is that we over-promised and ended up in trouble. If we were honest and lived within our means, we wouldn’t be complaining about sponsors. Debswana is assisting the A-League, FNBB is assisting the women’s national team and now the Premier League. DTC Botswana is assisting women’s football. Maybe we haven’t done enough in administration and governance to attract other sponsors to sponsor the regional leagues.”
Both said clubs should ask themselves tough questions “when considering the investor’s perspective and what they consider when deciding to invest in a team”. As investments are value-driven, clubs should ask themselves whether investors can “generate a return on investment in the short, medium and long term? What value do they see in a team? Most importantly, are we in line with the company’s expectations and in what ways can we help them achieve their goals?”
Questions the team needs to answer include: “How many fans do you have? Where are they? How do they tend to spend their money? Can they help expand the business? Can they promote or advertise the business? In other words, can you, as a team, promote goods, services, and support?
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