BY FORTUNE MBELE
AN unnamed fuel dealer is interested in injecting more than $2 million into football sponsorship in the country, Zifa president Felton Kamambo has revealed.
Kamambo told the Zifa Southern Region annual general meeting on Saturday that several potential sponsors, who could not be named, have lined up to fund football.
The local football governing body had made proposals to the fuel magnate to spread its sponsorship to the lower football structures and fund the returning Zifa Cup.
Zifa announced a few weeks ago that the Zifa Cup, which was last contested for in 2005 as the Zifa Unity Cup, was bouncing back this year.
Kamambo said the next two weeks, ahead of the crunch Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier against Congo Brazzaville, will be busy as his executive ties up sponsorship deals.
He said one potential sponsor wanted to fund the senior national team.
“We have someone who wants to get into football. It’s a very big company. I have said to them if you want to get into football you need to adopt our lower structures because he wanted to go to the national team. I then said with the amount that you are talking about, if you can give it to the lower structures, your name will be on the market week-in, week-out. We have given him a proposal to sponsor the regions, the provinces and the Zifa Cup,” Kamambo said.
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He added: “He wants to pour in more than $2 million. The next two weeks will be hectic for us because we will be announcing the sponsorship. There are quite a number of people who are willing to partner with football, but we have to protect and promote their brands. We have to act professionally.”
Kamambo, who beat Philip Chiyangwa for the Zifa presidency in December last year, said his main thrust was junior football development.
The Zifa chief said there are some sponsors who are taking the Warriors on board ahead of the March 24 game.
“As we speak, we have already secured sponsorship for the upcoming Afcon game. Already we have Umbro sponsoring our kit. We have a company, which I cannot mention now, but is sponsoring players with formal wear. We have someone sponsoring water and we have someone sponsoring the team in terms of air tickets,” Kamambo said.
