Katlego Sekhu
On Monday, Soweto-based Kaizer Chiefs announced that they were expanding into food, particularly snacks, with their new line of potato chips.
The announcement was met with mixed reactions, as some loyal supporters felt that at this stage, the club should solely focus on restoring its form.
959 Breakfast invited Nqobile Ndlovu, founder and director of Cash N Sport, to expound on what constitutes a good balance between sport and business for a football club.
Ndlovu emphasized the importance of the business side in sustaining the team’s performance on the pitch.
“If you don’t take care of the business side and invest in the right people or the team properly, then you won’t be able to sustain the team, regardless of whether you are winning trophies on the pitch or not.”
To illustrate his point, Ndlovu used the example of Marumo Gallans, a relegated team.
“They got to the semi-finals of the Confed Cup, but their business side was atrocious. They didn’t invest in the team, and they got relegated. So it is a balancing act, but the business side slightly outweighs the trophies, although fans want to see it the other way around,” he said.
Moreover, Ndlovu points out that it is a question of whether or not you are using money correctly, adding, “It is a question of: if you have the money, are you using it properly? That, I think, has been the problem for Kaizer Chiefs in recent times, in that sometimes the way that they have gone about spending within the business hasn’t led to results. Even though they can spend and potentially compete, they haven’t done it in the right way.”
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