Enact sports policy to attract more sponsors to the pitch

Something good is happening in the sports sector despite the woeful performance of Harambee Stars, the national football team.

While it is almost certain the team won’t make it to the continental championships in Angola next year, the local league is springing up pleasant surprises. For the first time, corporate bodies are sponsoring teams and providing cash rewards to the best.

South Africa’s pay-TV giant DStv started the windfall last year by pledging to invest more than Sh400 million in the Kenyan Premier League (KPL).

Around the same time, Virgin Atlantic sponsored the national Sevens rugby team for the IRB Sevens Series.

Perhaps spurred by the good run of the rugby team, mobile telephony giant Safaricom signed a Sh25 million deal with the Kenya Rugby Football Union (KRFU) for the Safari Sevens title rights. Telkom Orange snapped up the rights to brand the shorts of the Sevens team, another first in local sports.

But it is in football that the ground is shifting fast, and clubs are starting to enjoy the benefits of good management. Cement maker East African Portland Cement has set aside Sh36 million to sponsor KPL leaders Sofapaka for three years. This translates to Sh12 million annually, the biggest single endorsement of a football team by a corporate.

Brookside Dairy has also had a long partnership with Thika United.

Another club, Nairobi City Stars, signed a deal with a water bottling company, H2O, which guarantees adequate supply of water during training and match days.

KPL is also on the verge of roping in soft drinks giant Coca Cola as title sponsors, and this could mean more millions for the cash-starved industry.

It is commendable that clubs and companies are working together despite delays by the Sports Ministry to enact a sports policy that would, among other things, provide the sponsoring firms with incentives such as tax rebates.

Sofapaka, for instance, has captured the imagination of football fans and could win the KPL title today in Nakuru. This is the first season in topflight for the club founded six years ago.

Mathare United pioneered successful corporate partnership with a string of sponsors in the 1990s and also broke the ground for releasing audited financial reports every year.

Perhaps KPL should make this a prerequisite for soliciting funding and corporate sponsorship. Apart from entrenchimng good management, it would guarantee professionalism on the pitch and in the boardroom, attributes lacking at most clubs.

Such initiatives, capped by transparency, would make clubs very attractive for sponsorship.

KFRU, Athletics Kenya, Thika United, Sofapaka, Nairobi City Stars, Gor Mahia and struggling AFC Leopards have dared to restructure to meet modern challenges and their initiatives seem to be bearing fruit.

It is, therefore, incumbent upon the Government to enact a sports policy that will motivate more companies to invest in sports.

Better still, the Government should reward best-managed clubs financially or materially.