MTN MUST GIVE FOOTBALL WHAT IT DESERVES

MTN CEO, Ambrose Dlamini ... Good morning, Dlamini Wekunene. Y’ello Nkhosi ... Writing open letters is one of my sentimental hates but it gives me singular pleasure this Tuesday morning to address a person of your stature given the on-going negotiations between your company, MTN Swaziland and the Premier League of Swaziland (PLS).

I trust and hope I find you in good health and spirit today. I have utmost respect for you and the position you hold in such an international organisation whose support for the people’s game – football – began in earnest in the 2002//03 season with a E300 000 sponsorship. Your company has over the years channelled a sum of E25 million towards football and this is greatly appreciated.

First things first. When the first sponsorship was announced back in 2002, football had lost one of its long-term partners, Castle Lager and the E300 000, in the words of the dearly departed then acting FA president, Philemon Mkhaliphi was like ‘luju lwetinyosi’ and in many ways it looked lucrative. Indeed it was sweet as honey. We all embraced it with open arms and hearts.

I don’t know where you were in the stages of your life but you were probably starting to ‘make things happen’ with Nedbank. Then for three seasons or so, the sponsorship did not make a significant growth but half a loaf was better than nothing more-so as the game was fraught with poor administration from the boardroom to the playing field where violence became the order of the day.

Like the drop-dead gorgeous pelvis-gyrating yellow bones who are only interested in Cash, Cellphones and Cars, football then thrived on its own Three C’s – Chaos, Crisis and Confusion. It was scary. Very few captains of the industry wanted to associate themselves with the people’s game. The Premier League of Swaziland (PLS) had to change its structure and it came up with the Board of Governors structure where the team owners took matters into their own hands in running the game. I am glad, if not overtly proud, Nkhosi that this grandson of Mlonyeni was part of the behind-the-scenes brain-storming in the formulation of the PLS Board of Governors.

I cannot mention all the people involved but the current PLS Chairman, Victor ‘Maradona’ Gamedze, bayalisika liyamila Martin ‘Internash’ Dlamini, Celani ‘I live by the day’ Shongwe, the dearly departed Henry ‘Shushu’ Mthethwa, Tum Du Pont, Moses ‘Mkhulu’ Motsa, Charles ‘Ace’ Jele to mention but a few were among the men who provided the pillars to form this structure. Numerous meetings were held in ungodly hours to ensure this dream became a reality.

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