Recently during a chat with a colleague, he enlightened me about the kinds of the French language. One explanation caught my attention - the kind spoken in Marseille.According to my friend, the French spoken in France’s second largest city is full of slang, which is not suprising as the city's inhabitats are mainly migrants. Being a sports fanatic, I remembered the riots that have, on several occasions, occurred in the major cities in France where migrants live, and linked it to the chaos and mismanagement of the Rwandan sports federations.I concluded that many informal businesses are better run than the sports federations. With the government emphasising the importance of Small and Medium Enterprises, many informal sector players have adopted basic business management skills, like proper book-keeping.Take an example of a Mandazi (Doughnuts) entrepreneur, he or she will be in charge of procurement of the raw materials, production, marketing and distribution some times with the help of family members.At the end of the day, the boss will know what the input is, how much money has been made and what the future looks like for the business.

Back to the purpose of this column, our federations should take a leaf from the French spoken in Marseille and the Mandazi entrepreneurs.Colloquial language read known management and basic business skills should be applied.         Professionalising sports management should be high on the agenda of ministry of sports, and all sports federations come 2013.   The leagues lack bankrollers, save for football, yet federations have officers in charge of marketing and promotion.Running the leagues on a shoe-string budgets is one thing that federations have been hailed for.How they manage is more less  a miracle. 

Depending as well as relying on gate collections shows that the marketing chiefs at the federations are in a comfort zone. For corporations to sink their money into sports they need to see value.Sponsorship shouldn’t be taken as charity And this has not been helped by the monopolist tendencies that have characterised most of Rwanda’s big businesses. Rwanda’s sport has reached a point where its full potential needs to be tapped. This is happening at the time when the entire economy is registering positive growth. With economic growth, various companies mostly foreign based with huge budgets for marketing, have set up operations in Rwanda. These companies acknowledge the value that sports has on marketing. In football, East Africa has seen a massive drop in attendances with only as few as 100 fans, on average, attending matches in 30,000-seater national stadia across the region.One main factor to blame is the growing popularity of foreign leagues relayed via satellite television. The popularity of the English premiership, French, Italian and Spanish leagues has affected interest in local football and is likely to bury the local game if the stakeholders don’t move fast.  To some extent, Rwanda’s football seems to be sailing astray of some of the troubles that have dogged the country's neighbours.Though there is the English league storm that has swept through the country, Rwandans still take pride in the fact that that national football league. It is still a popular topic on the streets and airwaves across the country.A couple of teams have large fan bases who follow them even on away matches. While, attendance figures show a different picture for the smalle clubs, there is hope for the big ones.When Rayon takes on APR, the match can be the talk of town for weeks.To attract sponsorship, companies must see the what is in it for them.

The branding and marketing of the league must be top notch and every club has to look marketable to lure financing. To the federations and sports clubs, as you set targets for the new year, don't leave out creting an attractive brand and selling it.

Happy New Year 2013.