MOMENTUM Namibia on Wednesday made a first foray into Namibian club football when they announced a N$100 000 sponsorship to African Stars.
Momentum forms part of the financial services group MMI Holdings, which has been a long term sponsor of schools rugby through its Momentum brand, and schools football, through it’s Metropolitan brand.
Yesterday’s sponsorship is mainly for Stars’ current involvement in the African Caf Champions League, but Momentum’s GM corporate services Ingah Ekandjo said they were looking at a long term relationship.
“Today, Momentum and African Stars will join forces, hopefully not just in the short term, but in the long term to enable this club with such a rich and successful history to make its mark on the African continent.”
“We are mindful that it might take years before they can make a mark and their presence felt on the continent, but we are willing to walk this journey with them, because their success becomes Namibian football’s success,” she added.
The CEO of Momentum Asset Management, Lesley Rukoro said both parties would benefit from the relationship.
“With the sponsorship we have agreed to look at long term commercial interests such as branding rights, access to the club’s membership data base and advertising opportunities for both our brands. We believe with this partnership both our brands will benefit from this relationship.”
The chairman of African Stars, Patrick Kauta thanked Momentum for their sponsorship, saying it was clinched over a short period.
“These matches were organised in a very short time – we only knew on 14 November that we were playing Volcan De Moroni of the Comoros Islands. I then spoke to Momentum about a sponsorship and within one week they had made a decision, which underlines their effectiveness – a quality that we share.
“Another quality we share is that of diversification. In 2016 we decided there’s a need to diversify our support base and to start auditing our fan base. We’ll make use of that data to put it at the disposal of Momentum to market its products,” he added.
Kauta said that Namibian clubs needed to be more active in Africa if the Brave Warriors were to succeed on the continent.
“According to the statistics Namibia qualifies for the Afcon finals every ten years and that’s because our domestic league has not moved beyond our borders. How can a country like the Comoros Islands qualify regularly for the Caf Champions League and Namibia not,” he asked.
Kauta confidently predicted that they would beat Volcano, adding that their next opponents, Orlando Pirates of South Africa would also be beaten.
“We want to showcase Namibian football and make sure that we play Orlando Pirates and we’ll also give them a whipping. Thereby we will also promote Momentum Namibia and ensure a longer journey for both of us,” he said.
If Stars beat Volcano, they will most probably face Orlando Pirates of South Africa, who were leading Light Stars of Seychelles 5-1 after their first leg encounter.
Pirates will host the first leg match and can decide on a date between 14, 15 or 16 December, while Stars will host the return leg the following week. Kauta said they would most probably choose Friday evening, 21 December, since they wanted to release their players for the Christmas break the following day.
