Despite his club Jomo Cosmos playing in the ABC Motsepe League, football legend Jomo Sono has maintained that it’s the best football brand in South Africa.
In an interview with ‘PrimeSportsWithMahlatse’ during the unveiling of Cosmos’ news sponsors Lucas Batteries, Sono said whether people liked it or not, Cosmos was the number one football brand in the country, adding that it did not matter that the club was now playing in the lower leagues.
In fact, Cosmos find themselves in the third tier of South African football, having last featured in the local Premiership in the 2015/2016 season, before relegation at the end of that season.
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“You know, to be honest, Jomo and Jomo Cosmos, those are two brands in one and you cannot wash away in South African football,” he said. “If you talk about football in South Africa, you have to mention Jomo good or bad. You have to mention Cosmos, if you talk about the best strikers in the country, development in the country, you have to mention Cosmos. So this is a brand, whether it’s in the third or fourth division, this brand will always be number one in South African football whether you like it or not, you have to accept it.”
The Lucas Batteries sponsorship is for a year.
Cosmos are heading into their third season in the ABC Motsepe League and Sono has his sights set on promotion.
“We had a plan,” he said. “We were prepared to sacrifice two years in this league, just to learn. We want to get rid of this notion that we go up and down. We planned that two years we are prepared to stay in the league and learn about it. I think the players now understand this league. We are going to fight to go up, because it’s not easy. It’s a very tough league. People think it’s an easy league – it’s not. There are a lot of things happening there which the media is not aware of, because there’s no media (covering the matches). Off the field is not a problem. It’s on the field.”
