KAMPALA, January 28, 2025 – According to the International Cooperative Alliance [ICA], a cooperative is defined in the Statement on the Cooperative Identity as an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise.
But what does it mean? An explanation has been given as cooperatives being people-centred enterprises, owned, controlled, and run by and for their members to realise their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations.
Cooperatives bring people together in a democratic and equal way. Whether the members are the customers, employees, users or residents, cooperatives are democratically managed by the ‘one member, one vote’ rule. Members share equal voting rights regardless of the amount of capital they put into the enterprise.
As businesses driven by values, not just profit, cooperatives share internationally agreed principles and act together to build a better world through cooperation. Putting fairness, equality, and social justice at the heart of the enterprise, cooperatives around the world are allowing people to work together to create sustainable enterprises that generate long-term jobs and prosperity.
Cooperatives allow people to take control of their economic future and, because they are not owned by shareholders, the economic and social benefits of their activity stay in the communities where they are established. Profits generated are either reinvested in the enterprise or returned to the members.
Could the cooperative business model work for Ugandan sports clubs? Yes. Currently, there are many sports clubs in the country facing financial and governance challenges because they are solely owned by an individual or by a few friends. This means that fans or the majority of members of the community do not participate in the financial, and governance affairs of the sports clubs they support and patronise as members, which is a disadvantage given that most of these clubs be it in football, boxing, basketball, athletics, rugby volleyball etc, are grappling with financing challenges to the extent that when some are invited to participate in the national, regional, or international events, they fail to do so due to financial constraints.
The financial hardships are one of the reasons why most sports clubs in Uganda are looking for sponsors or companies that can push them through the season, yet if they invited fans and other members of the community to be shareholders through a cooperative, such financial constraints could be a thing of the past. Cooperatives are enterprising and clubs that are cooperatives could raise money by selling shares, producing items like T-shirts, caps, jackets, sweaters, and many more that the fans, or members can buy from the club, thus helping it to raise revenue to build stadia, pay staff, buy sportswear, pay for utilities, taxes, and even donate to the communities, or expand the income streams for the club.
The powerful football clubs in Europe such as FC Real Madrid, FC Bayern Munich, and FC Barcelona, among several others, have been operating a kind of a cooperative business model, and they are some of the richest sports clubs in the world. Sadly, Ugandans are fans of these European clubs but we have failed to ask how those clubs have managed to sustain themselves financially. Recently FC St. Pauli in Germany had to adopt a cooperative model to stay afloat as fans bought shares the club floated to raise capital needed for its operations.
Further, the 28th edition of the Deloitte Football Money League has profiled the highest revenue-generating football clubs in world football for 2023/24, with Real Madrid becoming the first football club to record €1 billion in revenue, and Barcelona, and Bayern Munich in the top 10.
In neighbouring Kenya, Kenya National Police DT SACCO, has even constructed a stadium located at the Kenya Police CID Training School in South C, Nairobi. It has a capacity of over 5,000 people with a volleyball pitch, a seven-lane athletics track, a VIP pavilion, changing rooms, and lavatories. The stadium is now the Police Football Club’s home ground.
The examples are a reminder to us Ugandans that the days of sports clubs running to State House, or politicians for funding are past us. The cooperative business model offers a sustainable pathway to grow our sports clubs.
https://thecooperator.news/st-pauli-become-first-german-football-club-to-launch-cooperative/
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