VIPERS SC; A CASE STUDY FOR SPORTS TEAM OWNERS

I have never watched a Vipers SC football match, ever.

A function of me not making the habit of watching live soccer matches – I have only watched one half of a live match. This was between the Uganda U-23 and Zimbabwe, maybe 20 years ago.

Vipers SC is enjoying major success. Last weekend in the southern DRC city of Lubumbashi, in the CAF Champions League, they wrestled favourites TP Mazembe to a goalless draw. In the ensuing shootout they overcome major nerves to beat TP Mazembe – who are five times Champions of Africa, in front of their home crowd. The final score, 4-2.

The victory meant that for the first time in Vipers SC history, they will play in the group stages of the tournament. While the local press were excited by the guaranteed sh2.1b they are set to earn, I marveled at the work it has taken to get that to that point.

I have had my eye on them for a while now. And not for their on-field prowess.

This is the story of Vipers SC, as I know it.

In 2001 teacher and entrepreneur Lawrence Mulindwa opened St Mary’s Boarding Secondary School - Kitende off Entebbe Road. The school first made a name for itself by churning out high scoring candidates at O- and A-level, upsetting the dominance of the traditional schools.

But it also started to dominate in soccer, emerging the best soccer secondary school in Uganda ten times and in east Africa 13 times, including 11 times in a row between 2004 and 2014...

Mulindwa did not stop there. He took over straggling Bunamwaya FC changing it to Vipers SC. This served as a useful up taker of his school’s talent. The team has won the premier league five times since 2010.

The success of his team makes for good reading on the sports pages, but the real untold story is the behind-the-scenes work needed to bring on this success.

Starting with a school to source and nurture talent was an inspired move. Owning a team to funnel that talent was the logical next step.

And in case Mulindwa had not made believers of us yet, he went and built a 25,000 capacity stadium to house Vipers SC, the biggest built in the country in almost three decades – Mandela Stadium was opened in 1997. And it is the only privately owned one that meets CAF’s standards to host its matches.

And suddenly Mulindwa, if it wasn’t clear before, was no ordinary soccer team owner.

Mulindwa’ stated ambition is to make Vipers SC the best team in Africa. If that is so the work has only just begun.

His actions suggest he understands what it takes to build a soccer team from the ground up. He has understood correctly that for success to happen the team has to be driven by an “impossible” vision, have a pipeline of talent and has to be able to sustain itself beyond his own means.

And this last part, building a self-sustaining organization to support the team, is what will give Vipers SC the best chance of attaining the dream, and ensuring that it joins the continental dynasties of the game.

There are richer teams on the continent than Vipers Sc that have not attained the heights they have. More than money will be the way the team improves its institutional capacity, its corporate governance. It’s a cliché these days but one that cannot be ignored.

At the most basic level it means the club will formalize how it earns and spends its money and how it plans for long term viability. The team will become an asset on the books like the stadium. The organization will supersede the team and must supersede its owner.

This is true because I suspect the team has gone as far as it can go on the will power of one man. But I am sure Mulindwa knows this and is working towards this end, otherwise he will not realise his dream.

As an indicator the most successful team in African football is Egyptian team Al Ahly. Al Ahly was started in 1907 and is thought to be the most valuable team on the continent, valued at $28m(Sh104b). In 2021 they had a budget of $129m(sh477b) and a transfer budget of $12.7m (sh47b).

It has a seven-man board, management and branches dotted around Egypt. It is no wonder that they are among the most successful teams in the world by trophy count –115 and have endured for so long. Long after their founders and their children were dead and buried.

Al Ahyl boosted by its tens of thousands of paying members and corporate sponsors is gone beyond being a soccer team with teams in the national basketball, handball, tennis and gymnastics leagues.

To be the best on the continent Al Ahyl are the ones to watch.

 

 

MY FAVOURITE BUSINESSMAN

It is the stuff of legend.

The story goes that on Saturday’s Charles Lubega would mount his speakers on his window which faced into the quadrangle at Livingstone Hall and set his player to play. He would then climb down the stairs basin and clothes in hand to do his laundry as he listened.

After not so long Saturday morning at “Stone” was a heaving mass of activity as other students stopped by to sample Charlie’s latest hits.

As his popularity grew he set up at the Guild Canteen, playing on Friday’s, Saturdays and sometimes due to public demand, on Sundays as well.

He did not stop there. Buying an additional set of machines to open his mobile disco. No party was with it, without the sound of Soul.

And then Patrick Bitature, wanted out of Ange Noir. And the rest as they say is history.

This is more than a quarter century ago, but Ange Noir – now Guvnor, still lives on, dominating Kampala’s night life, after all comers have come and gone.

This is not gospel truth, Charlie just does not tell his own story. But we shall not let the facts get in the way of a good story.

"Entering a market that was almost non-existent, raising standards incrementally, building the barriers to entry unilaterally, to the point now that there are many revelers who will not settle for less, at home or abroad...

Ange Noir has not only maintained a loyal crowd from the 1990s but has added subsequent generations of merrymakers and all without being tempted into race-to-the-bottom marketing gimmicks. This has ensured that standards have remained high – be it in the quality of the playlists, the ambiance or service.

So popular is the industrial area hangout that attempts to create some price discrimination and stratify the clientele by pocket size have fallen flat.

For a long time he has been my favourite businessman, but more and more I am liking what Lawrence Mulindwa is doing off Entebbe road.

Mulindwa last week unveiled a new coach, Portuguese Jorge Miguel Da Costa Duarte for his Vipers Football Club.  This came fast on the heels of an announcement of a sh500m Roofings Ltd sponsorship deal. Only days before his brand new 20,000 seater stadium at Kitende was cleared by the sport's African football authority, CAF, to host continental matches.

But what we are seeing is the finished product, or at least the rough outline of not only a great sporting establishment but a first class business too.

Initially there was the school St Mary’s Kitende, which has not only taken over domination of school soccer from Kibuli and Old Kampala, but has gone on to dominate the East African regional school competitions as well.

But he didn’t stop there, buying and converting stragglers Bunamwaya FC into Vipers FC as a preliminary destination for his school talent to settle.

"The last part has already paid dividends as at least a dozen players are already plying their trade abroad, with the most prominent of them being Farouk Miya, Lwanga Kizito and Yunus Sentamu who are playing professional football in Europe...

The stadium, the biggest stadium built in this country in 20 years, is just icing on the cake.

In a sporting business the main asset class is the intangible assets, where players would lie. 

Manchester United in 2016 reported total assets of about $1.95b of which intangible assets accounted for about half the total assets at about $900m. Fixed assets which include Old Trafford, the stadium, came in at about $300m

Looking at the whole Mulindwa operation from this perspective, he not only has a top team but has a rich pipeline of talent coming through from his school, which for all intents and purposes is the equivalent of a soccer academy in the Europe.

The beauty of this is that not only are the players developed from an early age, but when they are sold off the sell price is almost all profit.

Of course, there is a lot of work to do moving the operation away from one driven by its founder and chief backer, to a fully-fledged corporate organisation, which hopefully will outlive Mulindwa.

The lessons from my two favourite businessmen are many but a few stand out.

One, think long term. Don’t clamour for the quick gains. Be willing to forgo the good for the better and be willing to do the time and put in the work.  And relatedly don’t be content to being a big fish in our little, small pond. A few million shillings is plenty in Uganda, but with a million-dollar or even billion-dollar vision will make a world of difference. A business can only grow as big as its promoters dream, the bigger the dream the bigger the company.

"These heroes are important if only because when everyone is hemming and hawing, whining how it is difficult to make it in Uganda, they are keeping their noses to the grinding stone and showing how it can be done. In the process serving as inspiration for hundreds of thousands of businessmen in urgent need of local champions...

Charlie remains atop the Busharizi honours list, but only just.