BEYOND THE GOALPOST

Nov 02, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Branding is an important part of business today. A good brand can stand any business in good stead and help the global competitiveness of a product or service. It can also do wonders for a country’s economy as has been the case with branded football tournaments in Europe.
Over the past twenty-three years, a brand was developed in Guyana. It was a good brand and could have done more wonders for the local business community and for the country.
This past week that brand was put to sleep. The same brand that had placed Guyana on the map was recognizable as a Caribbean product of repute had the potential to go much further. Sadly this was not to be as it became the victim of a corporate war in Guyana.
For twenty-three years the Kashif and Shanghai annual football tournament was held. It had been developed into a highly popular and successful brand. At one stage, businesses were lining up to be associated with it, recognizing the value of this year-end tournament to their profits.
The tournament was by far the best organized sporting tournament in the Caribbean. It was run by individuals who understood football and understood the business of football. They brought together numerous sponsors under a single franchise, on scale never before seen in either corporate or sporting Guyana. More importantly, the organizers understood how to take a tournament, brand it and use that brand to move the tournament to a higher level.
The Kashif and Shanghai tournament first began in Linden and the finals were always held in Linden. After a while it became too big for Linden. There was inadequate seating capacity at the football ground in Linden where the New Year’s final was held. The tournament had outgrown the Mackenzie Sports Club Ground.
It was never the case that the organizers abandoned Linden. They did not. Spectator interest became so high that a larger facility was needed to accommodate this tournament which became a national event.
But as it grew larger and as tens of thousands flocked to see the matches, as the brand improved, the tournament became the victim of a corporate war. And that is the tragedy of this tournament.
The very corporate interests that the tournament served and could have continued to serve ended up killing the tournament.
The Kashif and Shanghai tournament was not killed because of a mere competing tournament. It was not killed because of the ugly politics within the football fraternity, even though that helped to administer to final rites.
The tournament was not killed because of a split in the loyalty of fans. It was not killed because a youth movement associated with the main opposition party had shamelessly called for a boycott of the tournament.
It was killed because two beverage giants chose to go to war against each other to capture the market of football fans and because, firstly, of the amount of money that was being poured into this commercial war.
It was killed, secondly, because those responsible for administering the affairs of football in Guyana find it difficult to extricate themselves from this commercial war between beverage giants.
In all of this, the football fans are pawns. They are being used to side with one beverage giant against the other. And they have allowed themselves to be so scissored.
But it is not football alone that has lost and will continue to lose as a result of the organizers having to end the reign of this highly successful brand known as the Kashif and Shanghai tournament. The whole country has lost because this was a brand that could have done more wonders for Guyana and in fact could have laid the foundation in the years ahead for the creation of a professional football league.
It did not have to be this way. There is no reason why the two major year-end tournaments could not have been held together. In Europe where football is a billion-dollar industry, three or more major tournaments are run off together with each making adjustments for the holding of the others.
Such accommodations proved elusive to those entrusted with administering football in Guyana. This is why football will not go anywhere.
If beverage giants can lead to the killing of one of the best brands this country has ever produced and if football administrators sit down and see this happen, then how far can they be expected to take football in Guyana.

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