The deal will be in place from the start of the 2022–2023 season and it is the second value-per-season sponsorship received by the Gaborone giants. Bank Gaborone's managing director, Sybrand Coetzee said the bank is committed to the development of communities in the country.
He said the seven-time league champions presented the right platform for the bank to invest in football. "The Gaborone United sponsorship is in line with our purpose to be a connector of positive change.
We can only effect this change with relationships built with our stakeholders. These relationships are important to us as they help to offer Batswana opportunities and rewarding experiences.
Our customers and our staff also want to see us giving back to the community in a meaningful way," Coetzee said.
"I guess at this point you are asking why football.
It might sound (like a ) cliché but football remains the most popular sport in Botswana and the world. The fact that this sport has an appeal that transcends all boundaries including culture, race, religion, and so forth, is all the more reason for us to take an active role in its development. Football also combines business, sportsmanship, and a good dose of fun and you can achieve great heights. It gives me pleasure to announce Bank Gaborone will for the next three years, invest and sponsor Gaborone United with P1 million per season," he said.
GU's brand and marketing manager, Herbert Letsebe said the club has established itself as a reputable football club locally and the partnership with Bank Gaborone will help enhance the club's stature.
He said the club will protect the deal and pleaded with the rest of the private sector to also lend a hand in the development of the club and football. "We have without any shadow of a doubt been the pioneers of professionalism in football locally.
Those fond memories, you'd recall that upward graph we plotted from 2008–2009. It must be, however, in a brutal fashion to ourselves, that we encountered challenges along the way that somehow reversed the gains and steps we had undertaken but we have learnt from those challenges. We emerged from the curve and took valuable learning cues, now is the time to beat the standard we set ourselves from the previous seasons.
We are in competition with our own ambition.
We are poised without a doubt to step to a greater height now with our partners, Bank Gaborone," he said. It was also revealed at the launch that GU has completed the registration of a commercial wing and the club is now operating as Gaborone United Pty (Ltd). The club has also launched the next season's playing kits.
GU recently got into a partnership with Umbro South Africa.
The club has stuck with the traditional red colour fashioned with the white zig-zag lines at the bottom for the home jersey. The team will wear white for the away jersey also decorated with red zig-zag lines at the bottom while a darker shade of grey is the colour for the alternative strip. Bank Gaborone has, meanwhile, been operating in the country for the last 16 years and this is not the bank's first investment in the game but it is, thus far, the largest.
