Salaries are a sensitive matter. Wages and allowances, as stipulated in a player’s contract, are his or her net worth as a footballer.
A footballer must have a salary because the football world dictates that one is a nobody if he or she does not earn a salary.
It came to no surprise that Perak fans were angry when the club I had once managed up until recently – Perak FC – had trouble paying the salaries of their beloved players.
There was at some point during my tenure that several former players and suppliers probably did wish that the fans had ‘killed’ me.
It was obviously the most stressful six months of my life. Being left with nothing, having to constantly find ways to delay the club from being booted out of the M-League, and building a broad sponsorship prospectus for potential buyers, were daunting.
I still find it unbelievable that we managed to sell the club to a public-listed company.
Several football clubs had, in the past, approached me to help them find investors and sponsors.
Having worked in corporate partnerships and sponsorships for over 15 years, I am usually excited about such work. But not anymore.
Football clubs in Malaysia, generally, are not bothered to invest in sponsorship work. Most clubs feel they are “big” enough, to the point that someone will, one day, walk through their gates and acquire them.
That is a strange concept. The strategy sounds like walking into a casino and thinking you will be driving home with pockets full of cash and Nigella Lawson by your side.
It doesn’t matter if the club is a multiple-league champion. Whether playing in the highest tier of Malaysian football – the Super League, in the midst of building a stadium, or having access to the most advanced sporting infrastructure – a club will always need to develop a sponsorship prospectus.
A sponsorship prospectus is a ‘trust’ document that describes the football club and related properties to the prospective sponsor. It contains information on the club’s financial objectives, sponsorship offering, commercial risks, details on the right-holders, past performances (financial and non-financial), enterprise value, and future plans.
It is referred to as a ‘trust’ document as it provides an initial understanding and confidence of the football club, sufficient to attract prospective sponsors to pursue the possibility of an acquisition or sponsorship.
It is the first document issued by the right-holders before the sponsorship term sheet, or the preliminary sales and purchase agreement, is drafted.
So, you can imagine my annoyance and resentment several weeks ago when I received a request to sell a football club that had nothing resembling a sponsorship prospectus.
“Noooooooooo!” I wailed my longest ‘no’ ever, while rolling on the floor, covering my face in anguish.
Asking me to sell a football club without a sponsorship prospectus would be like asking Carlos Santana to play the guitar without fingers or getting Cindy
Crawford to a photoshoot without that mole.
Pointless.
This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Twentytwo13.