Uganda Premier League clubs have been advised to build Modern and dynamic brands that will resonate with their fans and also attract sponsors.
This, was during one of the sessions at the ongoing FUFA-UEFA Assist League Development Programme at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala.
The program, that kicked off on Monday and running for five days, is here to help on organizational structure and economic sustainability of the local competitions.
“UEFA Assist are here for the league assist program which is a partnership with FUFA who invited us to work with the league particularly the clubs to professionalise the clubs in different disciplines that the clubs needs and can be Governance, Finance Management, Commercialisation of Marketing, Match-day Operations etc,” FIFA League Development Programme Expert Kenneth Macleod told The-SportsNation.
“And we are giving training sessions to each of the Premier League clubs these areas to help develop them.”
The first session was about Finance management before branding and communication in the afternoon.
Macleod advised the Club officials to form brands that their fans, sponsors and other stakeholders feel an affinity with.
“A big part of what we want to do is to make these clubs self sustainable, and big part of that is to be able to help commercialise themselves, having dynamic modern brands that will associate with their fans and other stakeholders like sponsors etc, and this will give them a reason to get back to the market and look like commercially minded clubs.
“And a lot of clubs may be have forgotten about that side of the club. The off field activity is very important and it’s really yielded a lot of positives to many clubs.”
Clubs were also challenged to look improve their logos so that they can match the modern world.
Various teams, including KCCA FC, were asked to explain choices for the various features in their logos.
Some were asked to think about carrying out wholesome changes in their logos and create a new visual identity that would reflect their identify and direction.
FUFA CEO Edgar Watson for example, hinted that the Federation will rebrand their logo in 2024 as their celebrate 100 years of existence.
The teams were told that use branding as a tool to create value for their clubs.
The participants, that also included FUFA, UPL, Futsal, UYFA officials, exchanged ideas on building identities and developing brand identity.
A couple of examples on some of Europe’s big clubs like Juventus, Bayern Munich, Arsenal among others were used as case studies.
Macleod commented: “I am not expecting them (UPL Clubs) to reach at higher levels like those of Manchester United for example, but we have worked a lot in regions like Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, Zambia and we are benchmarking them against clubs in the Northern (African) regions and we want to make sure that clubs in Uganda do not fall back, there are many activities happening off the pitch and we want to make sure that the clubs are focussed on them as well.”
What they said:
Moses Magero (KCCA FC Media and Communications) – “It was an enriching experience learning and unlearning a number of things in Branding, Communications and Marketing. Being the Head of Communications at KCCA FC, I will definitely put to work the new ideas learnt at the workshop.”
Fred Akena (Media and PR Maroons) – “We feel this is going to be of great input in developing that sector, within Maroons, in the past, the club has laid out a lot of strategies in developing the online image through regular presence, we are privileged to have a fully functioning website and our presence on social media is good.
We feel we shall do a lot to improve, we are going to see the evolution of Maroons FC TV, we want to create a Maroons App as we move to find the best ways to engage our fans, this is an opportunity and we appreciate FUFA for bringing this initiative.”
