Bosso educate fans on proper salutation

By Innocent Kurira

Since the beginning of last year, Highlanders have taken to educating players and supporters about the club’s correct salutation, which some have been confusing with South African side Orlando Pirates.

The crossed hand salutation is a pre-match ritual practised by both sides, but of late, Bosso have been doing the salutation a bit differently.

“We noticed people have been doing the salutation wrongly. That includes ourselves as a club, our players and our supporters. Our salutation is actually a representation of our club logo, which are a shield, knobkerrie and a spear.

“In this case, the person doing the salutation becomes the shield with the one hand clenched fist becoming the knobkerrie, while the other hand with an open palm becoming the spear. That actually gives you the Highlanders’ logo,” said Bosso communications officer Ronald Moyo.

He said it was important for Bosso to have an identity of their own different from any other club.

“The salutation we have been doing lately speaks to the Highlanders logo, which is an identity on its own. So, we thought it was important to take that corrective measure to ensure people do the right thing. It is just a matter of brand clarity. It also speaks to the issue of identity where people are saying you are copying certain clubs, so we want to clarify that we are a club with its own identity and this is who we are.

“Remember that salutation is communication, which can be done through words, signs and even symbols, so it’s very important that our salutation communicates the right and correct message that represents Highlanders. You might have noticed that last year we started doing our salutation differently. It’s unfortunate that when we started it there was no football being played.”

Moyo indicated that they started the educational campaign when they were raising funds for Ekusileni Hospital.

They shot videos of players demonstrating the correct salutation.

“We had actually planned that we were going to introduce that during a proper season. So, when we did the Ekusileni launch we thought it was a good opportunity to correct that particular error that has always been happening,” he added.

Moyo admits it will take time for the entire Bosso family to get accustomed to the new salutation.

“It’s something that we just started, so you will find in certain instances, players struggling to cope with that because they are used to the wrong salutation. The same goes for supporters and officials. It is something that will take time, but we will try and speed up the process so that we clarify who we are,” he said.

Moyo said the coming on board of technical sponsors On The Ball will help the club create its own identity as fans can now purchase replicas to wear on match days.

“It’s our dream that one day we will have Barbourfields Stadium full to the brim, with fans dressed in Bosso replicas. Those are gaps that we are trying to fill. We do not want a situation where people are at the stadium dressed in all different colours or any other black and replica of other teams because of lack of Bosso merchandise.

“We are making sure that the merchandise is there for the fans to buy. That is the commercial side of things that we are also looking at,” said Moyo. The Chronicle