Time for Gor Mahia fans to stand up
courtesy of the Nation
No sooner had Gor Mahia won the league title and followed it up with rather chaotic celebrations (by hooligans, not real Gor fans) last season than a period of anxiety and nail-biting set in as the club elections loomed.
The campaigns were protracted and at times very bitter. In the end, some won and some lost and the political climate cooled off a bit. The first duty of the elected officials was to ensure that K’Ogalo honoured their African Champions League preliminary round ties.
The first team to come calling was US Bitam and Gor had to fork out Sh4 million to pay for hotel accommodation in Nairobi for them.
Gor also paid for the air tickets, accommodation and allowances of the five visiting match officials. This was strange and the K’Ogalo chairman Ambrose Rachier said as much: “I find this fairly strange that we have to foot all the bills for the centre referee, two assistants, fourth official and the match commissioner to officiate here. I thought this should be the responsibility of another organisation but here we are.”
Caf, of course, organises the competition and does not wish to spend a cent on it. Furthermore, Gor spent some Sh2.3 million on air tickets to travel to Bitam in Gabon for the return leg. Now the team needs Sh15 million urgently to enable them honour their matches against Esperance de Tunis in the Champions League first round.
SPONSORSHIP PUZZLE
Worryingly, the Sh18.5m a year Tuzo sponsorship comes to an end in March. Perhaps due to the stresses of election campaigns, the office must have forgotten to source for another sponsor or negotiate a renewal.
The chairman made it sound like a bolt from the blue: “We have almost officially been informed that the current sponsors will not renew their sponsorship when it expires on March 31. For that reason, we are already looking for sponsors and are appealing to the corporate world or well-wishers who are willing to come to our aid.”
Notice that they have “almost officially…” been informed. Thus it is not official but just “almost official” which means nothing at all. No new sponsor has come forth to sponsor K’Ogalo, leaving many things are at stake.
There may be no money to pay players’ salaries and allowance or to travel to the match venues. There are some who have always whined that Gor fans can take care of the team; let them come forth and show us how they will do it now.
The winners are those hooligans who never pay any gate charges but just troop in forcefully. A way must found soon for the club to gain financial stability.
how about you start by telling us exactly what you require us to do and we take it up from there……
don’t Gor have MPESA service code where all and sundry can send their money?
gor fans shud indeed stand up BUT start by the chairman and the EC leading the way. they have tolerated hooliganism for far to long. most of these EC guys get their votes from these same hooligans so i guess it’s scratch my back and i will pretend you don’t exist.
1. EC must come out and clearly fight these hooligans even if it means votes.
2. these hooligans have one understanding that they will never pay for matches. either fake tickets are organised for them or they break the gates.
my take is that EC itself has never done anything apart from these two weak attempts;
a) denying that hooligans are gor fans.
b) waving handkerchiefs.
i understand that gor does not have the capacity to handle this situation on it’s own but you start with what you have;
1.hooligans are known characters, liaise with police to make arrests and CHARGE these guys in court.
2. stop any match when there is no control on hooligans. accept to lose the match.
3.appeal to goverment for help.can the goverment help with subsidized rates(UHURU will not refuse)
4. gor shud itself decide to play on empty ground if the last match was abandoned by hooligans.
5. deliberately sell less tickets at a higher price.(ur better of with a sponsor and 10,000 fans at kasarani than sponsorless but with 30,000 hooligans.)
these decisions are all painfull and will cost gor money… but so are all decisions. they might not be the best but they mean gor is trying to do something.
after we see this happening then admin you can now write on how we shud stand up and be counted. this site have fans making alot of road side decisions, it tells you one thing, the desire to help gor is exists, how to go about it is the problem. Bwana and his ilk have in a number of times denied that gor fans are hooligans, this is now the result of these denials. it was only a matter of time before tuzo walked away.
MOST important, call a meeting with all gor branches and find out ways to stop this menace. these branches have the solution to this problem. gor does not have the money to stop this problem but you’d be suprised to what a little education can do.
there is also the problem of tribal chauvanism that is messing gor. so long as gor is associated by these tribal chauvinists then you will come to realise just how much a poor community you are. pls realize that most of the business entities you want sponsorship from are not owned by luos. so when you go and destroy the car of that ‘PERSON’ pls understand the repercussions.
Gor has done nothing worth mentioning to fight the hooligan.
comical decisions of starting SACCO’s and building stadiums will just remain that… jokes
EC over to you. show me what ur doing so that i support you.
Personally, i have registered on a text service which gives me old news just to support my club.
It is upon the EC to come up with more creative ways of fundraising. Nationwide Raffles like ‘Win a Trip to Tunisia’, ‘Twende World Cup na Kogalo’ or even ‘Win a Car With Kogalo.’ Other prizes can be T-shirts, Official Jerseys, Free Match Tickets etc.
Another idea is to organise an Official Kogalo Night at Carnivore. I mean, one organised by the club and not corrupt promoters.
Third is to get a good circulation of a club magazine. It can be carried in one of the dailies like The Star, Nation or Standard one Wednesday every month.
Fourth is to organise our own pre-season tournament and collect proceeds. Invite teams which can attract a sizable number of fans.
Spend a little, partner with Citizen, Safaricom, Radio Africa, Coca-cola or any other top corporate and make some money for the club.
Come on EC. Think! There are many examples of clubs that have already done many things we can borrow ideas from worldwide.
Guys , at times we blame the EC for what they don’t have control over. How many times have Gor fans apprehended goons and handed them over to the police only to see the same face celebrating or even causing chaos after the match? How does the EC act in such a case? When we as fans see goons being arrested we are the first ones to call for his release. When we see police coming to our end of the stands to quel chaos or keep order we wave/shout them away. As much as some EC members could have benefitted from these goons during election there are a number who are very ‘clean’. So as fans we have all got a responsibility to ensure there is peace by not condoning the goons. The problem is that at times we encourage them.
On the good deas thebloggers are putting forth what’s coming out is that there is no diversity in the EC, meaning they were all elected for one thing and that is to be GM office bearers. To me no one has any special skills though I could be wrong. We saw Gor calendars being sold on the street yet the club was in a position to partner with a printing company to print and sell quality calendars. The Mpesa account that was opened the fans are asking for info about it yet nobody is responding yet they will all want to go to Tunisia at the expense of other players. The more things change the more they remain the same
I think that the Tuzo sponsorship has always been shaky.In-fact there was no guarantee they were going to renew it. But I also want to think that the Chairman in his smartness has not been sleeping. Of course you can not be talking of every step that you take to achieve something until you are sure that you have it in the bag. Some one may say this is self consolation. My Challenge is you may not be part of the Gor Leadership and you are in a position to pull a sponsor, why not do it now instead of waiting to use it as a campaign tool for the Office? I think that having Gor in the heart means doing everything possible for its success.On hooligans I think some sanity is slowly creeping in if we are to go by the last two games. Even a wayward child can reform and bring positive change.
gor mahia should continue getting
sponsors and start up on registering
menbers to catch up with the best in
africa
esperance who will be here on sunday
have an annual budget of 17 million
euros that is almost 2 billion shillings..al
ahly collect one billion shillings from
sponsorship and tv alone not counting
96000 members(membership is exclusive
to learned and employed/earning people)
and ticket sales…mazembe have a
billionaire backer in moise katumbi and
have a budget of btwn 10-15 million
euros, with a stadia to be expanded and a
plane
gor must adopt modern club structures
and professionals to run the club- I
COULD WRITE AN ARTICLE HERE ON CLUB
RUNNING IN AFRICA IF I GET THE
CHANCE
sacco is the önli way whtha u go east or west
goons in kogalo r nt specific.tri n close the gate on a match day u wil see them
guys in addition 2 all ths MAYIENGA INVESTMENT SACCO LTD can do it betta n permantly
Gates collections may not be enough but supplement when
used efficiently. Fans should learn how to avoid forcing themselves in without gate tickets.
KWANI an’goo? kogalo wil neva step back,,,sisi ka mafans 2ko ready ata kuprovide support in the field of financial 2 the team,,
wazii ochieng wa2 kaa ww