Gor should break from the past if it wants to solve chronic financial woes
Gor Mahia's Frank Odhiambo (left) vies for the ball with AS Otoho d’Oyo's Wifrid Nkaya during the second leg of their Caf Confederation Cup play-off match on December 5, 2021 at Nyayo National Stadium.
What you need to know:
- And we do not need to go far, let us pick ideas from Simba and turn around this club. Just a decade ago, Simba were in the same situation as we are now, but they refocused, repackaged and rebuilt the club. Today, Simba is the most organised club in East and Central Africa.
- I strongly believe that we can also do this at Gor Mahia, Let’s do it. I hope that 2022 will go down in history as the year we turned our club around for posterity.
Hello beloved brethren, last week I talked about professionalising our beloved club Gor Mahia.
I believe you are not hearing the last of this because to some extent this will be my pet subject this year because I do believe that it is out of completely turning around how we manage this club that we will be able to achieve what the great men who founded it in February 1968 set out for.
Of course when Gor Mahia was formed over 50 years ago, they never envisaged that over half a century later, so much will have changed in how football is run the world over.
Today, football, just like any other sport, is no longer seen as an entertainment but a source of employment for hundreds of youth. It is also a business with corporate influence and the stakeholders, who are the fans, expecting good returns on investment.
At Gor Mahia we are lucky to have remained in the radar despite our rigidity to change.
Gor Mahia, which boasts of being the most successful club in East Africa having won a continental title and reached a final previously, should today be way ahead of its peers in the region.
But what do we have to show for it? Nothing. And this is another song I have sung here on many occasions.
Recently, Simba Sports Club of Tanzania set out to raise funds to build its own stadium. The idea caught on like bush fire and Simba are already setting the pace in this region in professionalising its management and I admire what the club’s ardent fan Mo Dewji is doing there.
I do believe that in a few years, Simba will be challenging the likes of Al Ahly of Egypt not only on the pitch, but also in terms of income. It leaves me so ashamed when I look at my beloved Gor Mahia. Which is why I am challenging Gor Mahia following — let’s learn from what Simba is doing.
We pride ourselves to be the most followed club in the region yet we have failed to tap into that following.
As club fans we have brilliant ideas which we share on social media on how to turn around the club but because there is no strong bond between the club following and the management, these ideas are never appreciated by the club management.
I have so much respect for club chairman Ambrose Rachier, under him the club has become a dominant force in the country. Thanks to Rachier, today we boast of 19 titles, but the question is, where do we go from here?
The last two years have left Gor Mahia seriously exposed. When we cannot pay players to a point we are faced with a transfer ban from World football governing body Fifa, when we are losing our players to nondescript clubs like Wazito, when we cannot even pay for the training grounds, you realise we are retrogressing.
Which is why I am challenging Rachier and the entire Gor Mahia following, we must change how things are run at this club.
And we do not need to go far, let us pick ideas from Simba and turn around this club. Just a decade ago, Simba were in the same situation as we are now, but they refocused, repackaged and rebuilt the club. Today, Simba is the most organised club in East and Central Africa.
I strongly believe that we can also do this at Gor Mahia, Let’s do it. I hope that 2022 will go down in history as the year we turned our club around for posterity.
