WINDHOEK – Clubs plying their trade in the country’s first stream divisions are unhappy with their newly MTC-sponsored playing gear, saying the new attire is an insult to the clubs, their histories and reputation after their logos were omitted from the new kits.
Touch & Go FC was amongst the first clubs to express dismay over the design of the new gear, saying although they appreciate the main sponsor’s efforts, the omission of club logos from the playing gear amounts to undermining the clubs’ histories and their social standing within their communities. “Hypothetically speaking, NPL and its sponsors are treating Premier League teams and first division teams differently with the exception of the starting capital given to the teams, but still the same sponsor MTC is getting the same mileage in terms of exposure from all teams, be it in the premier league or first division. It’s just not fair,” said an aggrieved member. “The bone of contention here is that MTC with NFA and NPL were recently parading at the handover ceremony of the new playing gear to the Premier League clubs with those teams’ logos clearly visible on the new jerseys, whereas in the case of the playing gear of the first division sides the club logos were omitted. Was this a calculated move?” another member queried. “We are proud of whom we are, and to have removed the club logos on the playing gear is totally unacceptable and deserve condemnation. Sponsorship should be a reciprocal process. To have removed our logos from the sponsored strip is tantamount to the no-name products that are found on the shelves of some supermarkets. The little things that we as sponsors, football custodians and administrators fail to take into consideration are equally detrimental to the development of football that we many a time claim to be building,” the member added.
Approached for comment, Namibia Premier League (NPL) Administrator Tovey Hoëbeb distanced the NPL from the branding fiasco, saying the blame should be put squarely on the clubs themselves and partly on the South African manufacturer. Hoëbeb said clubs were requested in advance to supply the league administrators with their logos in jpg format, a format for compressing image files, and not in the word document format, since the word document format makes it hard for the manufacturer to print the logos onto the jerseys and it’s sometimes even impossible to redesign the logos to the required jpg format. “In the past we were designing and manufacturing the playing kits locally with OTB Sports, but due to the increasing prices and various factors, we opted to go for the South African manufacturer and there was a deadline for the completion of all attire in our agreement. The gear for teams in the premier league was already finished by late last year, because there were no hiccups in the process since their logos were submitted in the required jpg format. But with the first division teams, there were issues with the format of their club logos as the manufacturer struggled to convert the submitted logos to the required jpg format and that caused much delay in the process,” explained Hoëbeb. Due to the pressing deadline agreed upon by both parties, the NPL had no choice but to receive the jerseys from South Africa without the club logos, because of the logo format problems. Hoëbeb advised all teams to approach local designers to have their logo added to the new gear, but obviously at their own expense.
By Otniel Hembapu