The Sunday News
Trophies and awards are rewards, put simply.
Winning a prestigious honour is a great way of differentiating a player from his or her peers, among other beneficial levels.
For sponsors, an award can serve as effective and authentic public relations for their business as it acts as an independent third-party endorsement.
Awards are important marketing tools for any business.
An award can improve interest and brand awareness and promote a business to new customers or clients.
It’s helpful and can be reassuring for potential clients or customers to know what a business has achieved.
To maximise an award, it’s important to utilise it to its fullest extent, i.e., post it on a website, company brochures, press releases, social media, etc.
Awards can be an impactful morale boost to players.
Winning an award can instil a great sense of pride and ownership among players.
A new-found morale boost like this can result in a bump in performance levels and competitiveness within our game as well as a reinvigorated outlook on the direction of the game.
Any player enjoys receiving a trophy for his or her hard work all season or all month.
It has nothing to do with how much the trophy is worth; it has to do with the symbol of success.
In other words, a trophy is recognition and appreciation, which translates to future positive behaviours.
Achieving in sports is no exception.
Another benefit of rewarding with trophies is that it can create a positive learning environment.
If players are rewarded for good performances and good pieces of play, then they will feel they are being recognised for their effort and will therefore strive to learn and become better people and players.
Whatever your reasons for wanting to reward a player, a simple standard trophy or a large silver-plated trophy, it makes no difference; it still signifies the same thing.
The player that wins the trophy cherishes the pride felt inside and the legacy that goes along with the award.
The trophy symbolises the victory that the players have created.
Yet in our local game, our players are not being honoured as much as they should be.
Why can we not have monthly awards for both players and coaches?
How do we even begin to look at Soccer Star of the Year before we look at Player of Month or Goalkeeper of the Month? We used to have all these wards, but lately they seem to have died down?
We should be having a Team of the Month or even Team of the Week: this will help to motivate our players and make them more visible.
Everywhere else in the world, these awards exist and are yardsticks when the time comes for a Soccer Star of the Year to be selected.
They also bring the attention of national team coaches to players who are doing well at the moment while also creating noise for international football clubs to nip and have a look at the local talent.
Because of the current scenario with awards or the lack of them thereof, there are no real incentives for players.
There is limited or no recognition for good performances of both players and coaches in our local leagues compared to our neighbours such as Botswana and South Africa.
And this always goes back to the lack of adequate funding in football.
But while people have been quick to point the blame at clubs and administrators, I dare to challenge the corporate world to take responsibility along with everyone else.
Surely, big companies and big brands understand the concept of image rights and endorsement deals yet in Zimbabwe these things do not exist.
How do we justify the fact that our reigning Soccer Star of the Year has not appeared in a single advert or billboard?
In the early 1980’s we used to see local football stars appearing in print and TV ads for big companies, but nowadays this is but a distant memory of what was.
Corporates need to support the game more, especially when it comes to player and coach welfare.
While it is easy to suggest that the local game needs to repackage itself to attract these corporates, the fact remains that for this to happen the first step must be taken to fund local football in the first step.
Professionalism is an expensive commodity!
Even the 12th man in football, perhaps the most important man in football, is also a viable marketing tool if he or she is incentivised to participate.
Look at tournaments in South Africa where the 12th man is honoured with events tailor-made for them.
Think about it: in South Africa, a football fan can make a million rand just for taking and scoring a penalty at a tournament final.
And given just how much the 12th man is sacrificing to back their favourite club, a gesture such as this can only benefit the game and the club in the long term.
The economy is not at its best, but still thousands of football fans spend what little they have on this beautiful game of ours.
Kudus to Joel Luphahla and Benjani Mwaruwari who landed coaching jobs at Highlanders and Ngezi Platinum respectively: we are all happy for you and proud to call you two of our own.
This is a huge step for football in general and the generational change that is happening on the coaching scene. Well done gents!
And as I sign out, I would like to congratulate the five teams that will be representing Africa at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
We’ve got your back Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco, and Cameroon.
We wish you all the best and more in Qatar.
We know you will make us proud!
Peace and unity! And all things football.
Until next time.
May our Good Lord continue to Bless us all.
John 1 verse 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Amen
