The Soccer Revolution

THE BUSINESS OF SOCCER IS BIG BUSINESS

Lazarus Sauti

D

espite performing well at international youths tournaments, Africa’s senior national teams always fall short when it comes to competing with the big boys at the FIFA Soccer World Cup. It is only in 1990 (Cameroon), 2002 (Senegal) and 2010 (Ghana) that an African team has been in a quarterfinal match at the World Cup, and that says a lot about how African football is not progressing at national team level.

This simply means Africa needs a soccer revolution. A lot needs to be overhauled in how African football is administered and financed, which means much needs to be done to look at the kind of soccer officials we have.

Gishon Ntini, who has coached top flight football teams in Zimbabwe, says the first stage is to develop players from a young age.

“A good case study is the Spanish national team, who up until recently were useless on the international scene. The Spanish national team prioritised junior development and changed the way they go about managing, educating, and training their athletes and they are now the team to beat in world competitions,” he says.

Ntini adds that football administrators in Africa must change their mentality and the overall way they think about soccer.

“They need to be schooled on how to properly run federations, how to look for sponsorship and how they should handle issues to do with refereeing and coaching.”

In a nutshell, says Ntini, soccer is a business and must be treated as such.

African teams, says former Zimbabwe national team goalkeeper Gift Muzadzi, must also invest in coaching.

“Africa coaches need to be schooled and respected if the continent wishes to become a dominant world power in sports.”

It is not necessary for Africa to hire expensive foreign coaches, he believes, because local coaches can do the job as long as they get the right support.

Another major issue that needs to be dealt with is match fixing. Apart from distorting sporting ability, match fixing drives away the corporate backing that can bring much-needed money into football.

Ghanaian Sports Business Professor, Kwame JA Agyemang, has said, “Sport is a business and in order to have a successful sport enterprise, one does not simply need to be a fan of sport.”

Businesses require investment and capitalisation. As such, governments and the private sector must be partnering to build academies and sports clubs, while those who are interested in management should get the necessary training so that they know how to run these businesses and their various levels.

CAF, as the mother body of the beautiful game in Africa, should prioritise football development policies as guided by the “CAF Contract with Africa”, a strategic blueprint development programme launched in 2005.

The programme states, “CAF is committed to empower its member associations by providing them support through the following three pillars of development: grassroots; human resources and infrastructures.”

Making soccer in Africa a serious business will not happen overnight, so the sooner everyone involved rolls up their sleeves and gets down to work then the better for the continent.