25 Apr 2021

Lobatse-based side, Extension Gunners’ financial woes will soon be a thing of the past as the club promises to unveil their sponsors in the near future.

Mapantsula has been struggling to secure sponsors despite having a good number of supporters, which could be appealing to sponsors to align their brands with the club.

In an interview with BOPA in Gaborone on Saturday during the team’s membership drive, public relations officer, Gerald Mahumba highlighted that they would soon unveil around seven sponsors after finalising paper work, which was nearing completion.

He explained that some of the secured sponsorships included transport, two for accommodation, water and energy drinks as well as financial sponsor.

“All this was possible through the assistance of Lobatse MP, Dr Thapelo Matsheka’s office,” he said.

Mahumba also pointed out that they had opened up a tender application which closed on March 28, inviting potential technical sponsors and there were a number of companies, which had shown interest. In less than two months, he said they would let the Gunners community know of their new technical sponsor.

He indicated that all these efforts were in line with commercialising the team.

In addition, he said Extension Gunners Holdings had already been registered, adding that since the club was a society, they were still looking into various models of commercialisation.

“We are still considering, which model to go for,” he said.

He further highlighted that after their AGM last year, a number of policies were adopted, which assisted the club to run effectively and efficiently.

He indicated that one of the adopted was the finance policy, which seeks to guide the club how to successfully manage funds.

In the past, he said there was no clear policy on how finances should be managed, which led to negative conduct among members.

“Since implementing the policy, our finances are managed professionally and there is now accountability and paper trail of all funds,” he added.

Mahumba explained that a communication strategy was also implemented in an effort to manage internal and external flow of information.

“We realised the need to have a clear communication strategy, which eventually led to smooth operation of the club,” he said.

Pertaining to membership, he said they realised that most of their members were not registered hence their nationwide membership drive, which started from February 20 until May 29.

“As of last week we registered around 850 members, which is a positive sign since we still have a number of branches to cover,” he said. On players’ wellbeing, Mahumba highlighted that it was a challenge to assist them financially but were able to give them allowances with funds from the membership drive.

He said players were advised to exercise wherever they were in order to keep fit, adding that they kept in touch with them through phones to monitor their progress.

He urged their members to register officially, not just to have the team’s merchandise and consider themselves members. Ends