Gor Mahia and Tuzo pulling in different directions
Courtesy of EA Standard
Kenyan Premier League (KPL) side Gor Mahia and their sponsors Tuzo are pulling in different directions. At stake is a multi-million shilling sponsorship deal which threatens the survival of the premier club.
The tug of war is as a result of claims of breach of contract by the sponsors who are accusing Gor Mahia of entering into a merchandising agreement with a local media house to sell replica jackets.
Brookside Dairy General Manager in charge of sales and marketing Elias Ocholla said they have documentary evidence the club breached its contract with the firm.
“There exists documented evidence that our sponsorship contract signed between Brookside Dairy and Gor Mahia has been subjected to well founded breaches, and that the existence of the said breaches has been acknowledged to us,” he said.
He further said Gor have failed to address the concerns raised by the firm despite promising to do so.
“No tangible progress has been realised in these efforts over the past two months. We have tried to exercise patience with the club, as it is our conviction that matters affecting both parties can be resolved amicably,” he said.
He assured that Brookside Dairy are committed to the continuation of the sponsorship with Gor Mahia if the club ceases all promotions outside the ambit of the current contractual agreement with them.
He took issue with the statement by Gor coach Zradvko Logarusic regarding the matter insisting that such matters should only be handled by club officials.
“ We expect mutual goodwill at all times, and are of the opinion that administrative issues affecting both parties should henceforth be handled only by officials with management mandate,” he said.
But Gor Mahia secretary George Bwana denied that the club breached any agreement with Tuzo insisting the contract only bars them from associating with a milk processing firm – a direct competitor of their sponsors.
When our sponsors raised the issue, we made frantic efforts to meet them and explain why we accepted the new deal. After that meeting it was resolved that we write to the media house and ask them to stop the promotion on jackets.
“This meeting also agreed that upon writing the same letter which we did, our sponsors would release the salaries but this is yet to happen and it appears they are playing games with us.
“We assumed that Tuzo would be happy to partner with a media house to promote the team especially considering that the money we get from them is not even enough to cater for all our needs,” said Bwana.
Gor Mahia vice-chairman Faiz Ochieng admitted that the club was wrong by entering into a merchandising deal without the approval of the current sponsor and revealed that it has been cancelled.
“We are grateful for the support we have received from them and we cannot throw it away for something that is just temporary,” he said.
How much are we as GM getting from these jackets and can it sustain the club if Tuzo pulls out? Let us weigh between Tuzo and Nation (jacket) and make a decision so that our players and technical bench are not affected. EC it’s time to act.
i blame the EC. bwana and the rest of the clowns.
one: while i do not support the strong handed nature of how brookside has handled gor(players to be precise) these EC guys worked themvselves into a ‘straight jacket deal’. while i can excuse the fault on the other EC guys my question is where was rachier. being a lawyer and all that, why did you not give guidance and give gor some breathing space on the deal.
two: gor fans and supporters; why? this is the result u get when u blindly elect officials out of pure emotions without looking at the type of expertise they bring to the club. guys who will quickly sign deals without looking at the fine print. brookeside obviously knew they were dealing with clowns hence the heavy one sided nature of this sponsorship.
otherwise to the tuzo guys; if gor has appologised pls move on. take note that nation promotion was merely a jacket so there was no direct competition with ur milk.the nature of how nation newspaper has continued to promote the jacket deal despite the problems this promotion is causing just tells alot of the nature of how these deals are being signed.
community club should never be held by the balls!, the EC should come up with practical plan medium term (3 years)and long term(10+years) for sustaining and making the club financially self reliant respectively.
This way, we have an upper hand making decision as to which sponsor to accept, and not rush to take any offer that comes our way. its man eat man society, and even sponsors are not getting nothing out of the “passionate relationship”they have with K’ogalo, so i refuse to plead with TUZO and I refuse to support EC, let this be handled professionally. And don’t bring the playing unit into finance mobilization issues..lets sort this house, and be futuristic.
Its high time we subject K’ogalo leadership to PERFORMANCE CONTRACT!
I think we could have been desperate to get a sponsor when Tuzo came on board and that could be the reason for the loopsided contract. Personally I think a team like AFC gets more from Mumias than we will ever get from Tuzo. Even match bonuses for a cup win are not there. Even a team like ManU has many sponsors AON, DHL, Audi etc why not GM so long as the companies are not competing. This is a good lesson for us. We need a sponsor where all parties will mutually benefit. The only catch is how do we fund the rest of the campaign? This could even affect our recruitment as kenyan players demand money first before they move.
EC are to be blamed in this fiasco as contract between Tuzo and Gor Mahia. Contracts are legally binding and must be respected.
In this case, EC of Gor Mahia were wrong to go with Nation Media Group on distribution of the branded jacket without consulting the main team kit sponsors.
No matter the size of sponsorship package with Tuzo, the contract between Gor and Tuzo is binding and must be respected by both Gor and TUZO.
I don’t think any promotion can be signed without the chair’s knowledge.
I don’t know as well if a contract between GM and anybody can be signed hurriedly without proper scrutiny and good study, lets accept that there was definately a proper negotiation between all the parties involved, that is GM , AFC leapards and Nation.
I still find it funny that we bloggers still think some officials are angels and others are demons such that we should always shout down others and praise some.
It is on these tenets that i have and will always repeat that we fans are the major impediment to GM’s survival and prosperity. From the discussions since the saga came to surface many people still find it possible to castigate TUZO while alot think someone pays from his pocket bizzare reasoning is a good way to go.
What happens to best practices of running any club? Remember GM receives income regularly from gate collections but still managing the collections have left alot to be desired not forgrtting the fact that GM leads in attendance but is rivalled in figures by its immediate contender.
Gentlemen,I think our EC has performed fairly well we need to be tollerant and accept that errors do occur particularly where there are competing intrerests. Im abit worried about the manner in which vice chairman is approaching some issues and in particular the Tuzo fiasco. His admition that the club was wrong in entering a mecharndising deal with Nation newspapers is worrying and suggests that it was not colLectively negotiated by Ecs quorum. I think Tuzo and Brook side can benefit from the piece of information by Dan@4 with regard to Man U sponsorships stop engaging in un necessary blame game and pay salaries to the players. We dont want to see or hear about any thing likely to disorient the players at this crucial time. As fans we endevor chear to the end and offer any other requisit support humanly possible.
My view is that Gor EC let us down on this. Tuzo seem to have a point, at least the explanation by marketing man is ok.
Tuzo seem more organised, their approach is more diplomatic, so THEY beat us in strategy!
Lets respect contracts. we shud applaud TUzo for this deal
i agree. tuzo has lifted gor from far, actaully methinks tuzo should be commended. ochola’s reply has exposed our officals as lacking in foresight, why sign with nation without involving tuzo
bona mnafikiria korgalo is without blemish. bt brookside need also to understand these can be teething probs, so lets move ahead, people. tuzo, splash something more to kenya’s best club!
Nation newspapers is a pro-establishment entity that favours anti-reform groups.
And the money from the Nation deal is so low that I cant believe they would antagonize the club’s sponsors because of the useless Daily nation.
. . .Gor Mahia EC, . . .SHOULD STOP FOOLING us! between jackets and Tuzo, whose money is more? . . . Nyikwe Ramogi, selfishness is not a good thing, and shall never be.
Let Gor respect Tuzo, and adhere top the terms of the contract, period!
It is clear there was a breach of contract by the club. Please EC get more sponsors for the club. Several questions were asked before the Tuzo deal was finaly signed. Did we take this Tuzo sponsorship bcz we were desparate?
Some officials are taking us for a ride, I don’t understand how we can enter a contract with Nation yet the Tuzo contract with Tuzo is still valid, it’s simply dumb. I said I earlier that the calibre of some of our EC is immensely wanting. Am sure some came in with the mentality o making money, am pretty damn sure. Too late for them, the club has moved on and needs high level of professionalism. I wouldn’t be shocked if Logarusic blew this off the lead partly to bring out this debate. He probably reads this blog. Let the current contract wind up but in the meantime we should be looking at extending it while amending the terms to include other sponsors. We need Tuzo and we need more sponsors.
tuzo could not sell their branded jerseys due to bad pricing and and due to the fact that they signed a 2 year deal so any sound minded low income kogalo follower could not dare buy the and again the only option is to change the structures of the way we run the club from welfare to maybe asacco if not the likes of George bwana will still find way to lead gor mahia poor fans pay so much to support the team even families get broken cos of this so rachier where is your law ecumenism with this fiasco in place ?
Guys, we have a game to win, hiyo mambo ya Tuzn na EC we can pick after the final match. Note that our bhaviour will also scare away that sponsor you think is better than Tuzo. Everybody is watching how we handle this issue. The Chairman has echoed what some of us said in this blog as well as all fans who know the repurcussions of mishandling a sponsorship.
The motto stay: ONE GAME AT A TIME
Amen, Kogallo in my prayers today, God will see us through this afternoon!!!
niaje hiyo pointi tatu?
PRAYERS PRAYERS PRAYERS!!
Butterflies, butterflies galore in my stomach. General Kassam Mwivangano rally your troops.
My prayers still with Kogallo, May the Lord help you to finish what you have started with success, I pray!!! Go Kogallo go!!!
Thank you Lord for that sweet victory!! You have brought us from far!!! Congratulations to the boys and Kogallo family, Let us thank God!! Gor 1 Tusker 0
Shukrani tele kwa Mwenyezi Mungu!
Leo hapa Ghana kresti zita anguka!
AWAMU MPYA, SERA MPYA, AMANI IMPYA, IMANI MPYA!!
KOGALO FOR EVER!!
Our heavenly father we have once again to return glory, honour, praises and thanksgivings for the sweet victory you gave Kogalo over Tusker in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
Thank you Lord for hearing our prayers in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen
both gor and tuzo should revisit their deal,what was happening then that is not happening now is anyone trying to sabotage gor eagerly awaited trophy?
this deal has been stinking since the beginning. was the meant only for remuneration or to develop the club. all over the world shirt sponsorship deals are far much than what Gor is getting compared to advertisement and image revenue Tuzo gets from the club. Rachier Wake up you were elected to develop the club and improve the clubs financial muscle. this deal should either be renegotiated or canceled all together if it doesn’t benefit the club.