When all else fails, try sports. It’s good for the soul.



For centuries, resource exploitation and extraction from Africa has been a constant.



The untold misery, the unaccounted siphoning, the unprecedented loss of humanity.



Yet another big resource loss in modern times is going unnoticed.



Sports is big business globally. But there is a paradox.



Every time I watch soccer or rugby or basketball or cricket or every other sport virtually, I see what the world sees. The best athletes in the world are largely African; albeit wearing different colors.



Imagine the potential of those left behind?



They are winning it for us on the field. How to make Africa now win off the field too?



To play sports is business, not mere recreation. Its impact on both youth and economic development is inarguable. The jobs it creates are obvious. The bonds it forges that bring national pride and cultural expression to the fore is stirring.



Yet, while single-use stadiums exist, there are no real multipurpose sports arenas outside of Kigali on the continent.



Stadiums are hard to fill. Sports arenas get filled easier because of their adaptability, thus, making the business case stronger.



In 2020, accounting firm Mazars and the African Sports &amp; Creative Institute presented a study: Sports Ecosystem in Africa: From Potential to a Development Lever.



They assessed the state of the sports industry and defined the opportunities ahead. Experts confirmed sports as a credible response to the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals.



The UN recognizes sport “as a means to promote education, health, development and peace”.



Sport allows young people to lead healthy lives, take on responsibility, behave fairly and resolve conflicts peacefully. These are key skills to gain a foothold later in the working world.



Africa News Agency (ANA) quotes in a 2024 article that the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa, the first on the continent, illustrated the impact sport can offer:



the government spent $3 billion on infrastructure development (with $1.29 billion subsidized by FIFA) that led to an economic boost of $6 billion.



Soon to come are the Cricket World Cup in 2027 and the FIFA World Cup in 2030. These are both investment and development opportunities.



Interestingly, initiatives to bring global sport to Africa are gathering momentum.



Smart capital is seeing the potential of a talented two billion people which can raise both sport standards and viewership off the charts.



The Basketball Africa League (BAL), a joint venture between the NBA and International Basketball Federation (FIBA), was established in 2019.



Barack Obama joined NBA Africa as a strategic partner whilst purchasing a minority stake in the organization. NBA commissioner Adam Silver had stated that NBA Africa was valued at $1 billion.



The FIFA President Gianni Infantino unveiled a joint FIFA/CAF strategy to elevate African football on three key pillars: refereeing, investment mobilization and competition development.



On competition development, a range of new initiatives: a world nations league for women’s football, youth world championships, a re-positioning of the African Cup of Nations played every four years and the creation of a new pan-African club competition.



Can you imagine the specter of sporting events hosted in Africa, played by Africans, supported by its legions of ‘global Africans’ catering to a continent that by 2070 will be a third of the world’s population and a quarter of the world’s youth?



As Canadian hockey great Wayne Gretzky said: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”



Sports globally are played, followed and supported by a thin, elite layer of people. They control commerce, eyeballs and capital. They can decide if the ‘puck’ is indeed where the African continent is.



African leadership has to wake up and make this happen – build infrastructure, institutions and inspirations. Investments will come ‘as night follows day’. Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Amen.

South Africa, Cape Town, Hout Bay, boys (14-17) and men playing soccer

Expert-Speak: How To Make Africa Win Off The Field Too

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has long acknowledged the potential of the African continent, both on and off the pitch, but admits much more needs to be done to move the game forward, starting with good governance, before all else, to create the right environment for success.



By Nick Said



IF AFRICA IS TO EMERGE FROM DECADES OF greed and corruption to become a genuine power in world football, then it requires reform and strong leadership, all built around a united front that puts the game first, according to FIFA president Gianni Infantino. 



He has long acknowledged the potential of the continent, both on and off the pitch, but admits much more needs to be done to move the game forward, starting with good governance, before all else, to create the right environment for success.



Former Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Ahmad Ahmad was recently banned by FIFA’s ethics committee, which said in its statement: “In its decision, following an extensive hearing, the adjudicatory chamber ruled that, based on information gathered by the investigatory chamber, Mr Ahmad had breached his duty of loyalty, offered gifts and other benefits, mismanaged funds and abused his position as the CAF President, pursuant to the FIFA Code of Ethics.” 



The CAF president automatically takes up a vice-president role within FIFA, and now with the elevation of South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe to the highest seat at CAF, which was orchestrated by Infantino, there is the promise of better governance and commercialization of the organization’s competitions beyond the continent. 



“Africa has incredible potential, but what we need is to structure and organize the development of football on the entire continent in a way that allows this talent to flourish and obtain results at senior level for men and women,” Infantino tells FORBES AFRICA.



“The question of where and when concrete results will be coming on the global stage is not a matter of ‘if’, but ’when’. But the sooner the organization is done in a coordinated and united way, the quicker this will be.” 



But Infantino admits this optimism can only become a reality if the leadership on the continent, through CAF, are serving the game and not themselves. 



“To compete at the highest level, the organization has to be done in a certain way, reforms need to be implemented, everybody is aware of that, and the unity on the continent needs to be found, backing these projects, which go from good governance, infrastructure development and new competitions, to academies and training for young players. 



“So all of these things are at the heart of the debates we are currently having, and I would wish that the whole continent can unite behind these topics with strong leadership to take Africa to the top of world football.” 



Covid-19 has complicated things for FIFA members the world over, but perhaps especially so in Africa where maintaining health protocols and running competitions at the same time are made more difficult by a lack of infrastructure. But Infantino says he is unwavering in his view that Africa can fulfil that potential if it has the right people at the very top of the game. 



He wants to see Europe’s domination of the sport, both on and off the pitch, rivalled in other parts of the world. 



“The next five to 10 years are crucial. We need to make sure that football becomes truly global. We always say that it is, but if you scratch a little bit under the surface, you will see that top-level football is very much concentrated in just a few clubs and countries, and we need to globalize that much more,” he says. 



“I have been sharing my vision for the coming years, saying our objective and aim is to have at least 50 countries that can aspire to be world champions, and not just five or six. 



“To have 50 clubs, from all over the world, aspiring to be world champion of clubs and not just a few from one continent. 



“We will do that by investing in our youth, boys and girls, with new competitions at regional, continental and global level.” 



Under Infantino, FIFA has increased the number of teams competing at both the men’s and women’s World Cups, providing more opportunity for Africa to sit at the main table. But they must seize this opportunity, he says. 



“Africa will have nine or 10 teams (up from five) at the 2026 World Cup. And they will have four instead of three participants at the Women’s World Cup [in 2023]. 



“So there is a lot of work to be done in preparations for these events, in the period from now to 2025, and that makes this phase crucial for African football. 



“You want to go to these events and play a protagonist’s role, you don’t want to just go back home after three games.”

Giovanni Infantino2

‘More Opportunity For Africa To Sit At The Main Table’

From being in the presence of two South African presidents
to high-fiving the third, South Africa’s national women’s football team coach
Desiree Ellis is determined to grab headlines at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in
France.&nbsp; 



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



As the country celebrates 25 years of democracy since the
fall of apartheid, South Africa’s women’s football team Banyana Banyana will
make a landmark appearance at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, to be held
between June 7 and July 7 in France.



&nbsp;The years of toil,
tears and sweaty perseverance beyond the pitch are indescribable for the team’s
coach Desiree Ellis months after qualifying for the acclaimed international
football championship.



When we meet her, she vividly recalls the qualifying match,
one of the most defining moments of her career. 



With 10 minutes left to the final whistle, as tension
mounted on the field, Ellis ascended a ladder for a closer look as history
unfolded, that day in 2018 in Ghana. 



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="410" height="617" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Soccer3.png" alt="" class="wp-image-41373" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Soccer3.png 410w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Soccer3-300x451.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Soccer3-199x300.png 199w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 410px) 100vw, 410px" /><figcaption>Banyana Banyana Coach Desiree Ellis. Picture: Gypseenia Lion </figcaption></figure></div>



“I knew we were 10 minutes away but in football, anything
can happen,” she says. 



Ellis recalls a previous World Cup qualifier when things
went completely wrong. 



In 2014, Banyana lost to Nigeria during a semi-final
qualifying game. After the match, the mood was somber as the team drove home,
she recounts. It’s moments like those that make this 2019 qualification that
much more precious for Ellis. 



As they faced Mali’s national team, The Eagles, in the 2018
Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) tournament hosted in Ghana, a tired and
overworked Banyana team played to their fullest leaving Ellis with no choice
but to scream in celebration of their ultimate victory.



 “I tried to stay calm so that the players could be calm. They kept shouting ‘manage the game’ and we kept control of the game fantastically. We were leading two-nil and when they said two minutes I could’ve screamed.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“When the final whistle went, the scenes were amazing. Oh goodness, you just didn’t know where to run, who to hug or what to do,” Ellis exults. </blockquote>



A solid defence strategy mixed with a patriotic passion for
both the game and teamwork ensured an eventual win.&nbsp; 



“Many of them were there in 2014 when we didn’t qualify and
for a lot of them, it might have been the last opportunity to go to a world
cup. That really drove them. We needed to take it seriously and make sure we
don’t go to the third and fourth place.”



Armed with renewed confidence and a French translation book
to speak and understand basic French, Ellis is equipped to lead the women’s
team to possible glory at the international championship this month.



&nbsp;She owes her passion
for the sport to her community where she started playing at the tender age of
six. Back then, little did she know how far soccer would take her – or how far
she would take soccer.&nbsp; 



If that six-year-old girl from Salt River, a Cape Town suburb, had looked into a crystal ball at the time, she would have seen herself lead the team she once played for, and also rub shoulders with three South African presidents.



READ MORE | <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Thembi Kgatlana’s Long And Hard Road to Houghston (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2019/01/09/thembi-kgatlanas-long-and-hard-road-to-houghston/" target="_blank">Thembi Kgatlana’s Long And Hard Road to Houghston</a>



&nbsp;“When you talk about
significant moments, it most probably is your first game, your first cap or
being made captain but I think those are small milestones. I have had the
privilege of having lunch with the late President Nelson Mandela, with a lot of
other athletes in Cape Town, at his residence,” she tells FORBES AFRICA. 



Ellis has also received a presidential silver medal from
president Thabo Mbeki and interacted with former president Jacob Zuma when she
was an ambassador for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.&nbsp; 



“We played a game in Cape Town during the World Cup. The
game was 10 minutes before the Argentina game, and I came off the field as
president Zuma came on and we high-fived each other.



“It comes with the work you put in. I don’t think many
people can be fortunate to say that they have interacted with all three
presidents.”



Ellis regards the role leaders play as an important one in
relation to sport, particularly when it comes to creating opportunities for the
marginalized.



“When president Nelson Mandela was released, I got the
opportunity to play national football. Prior to that I never played. I was 30
years old,” she says. 



Her unwavering focus on the game, she adds, and the many
sacrifices she has had to make along the way changed her story from just
playing soccer with boys on the streets of Salt River to achieving national
glory. 



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="926" height="615" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Soccer2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-41375" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Soccer2.png 926w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Soccer2-300x199.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Soccer2-600x398.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Soccer2-768x510.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 926px) 100vw, 926px" /><figcaption>Banyana Banyana Coach Desiree Ellis holds a portrait of the team in 1993. Picture: Gypseenia Lion</figcaption></figure>



Her career goals even left her financially vulnerable, at
times. At the peak of her football career, a young Ellis, who worked at a local
butchery, had left for a football weekend and could not make it back to her workplace
in time to mix spices. That lapse resulted in her losing her job.



&nbsp; “Knowing your worth
can open doors,” she advises as she speaks to us at the state-of-the-art
headquarters of the South African Football Association (SAFA) in Johannesburg.



“Our federation is excited that they took the opportunity to
appoint female coaches for female teams. Most importantly, it is not just
making those decisions in appointing us, but also supporting us.”



Support does not only come from management but also fans who
play a role in encouraging the women to reach their potential – both on and off
the field. 



“We played in Cameroon in 2016 and the stadiums were packed, we played in Ghana and there were full stadiums. We came to Port Elizabeth and they [fans] were the 12th and 13th players for Banyana. The best fans we had [were] in Durban. It was absolutely amazing, and it [support] hasn’t only grown on the stands but on the field as well. The Under-17 team qualified for the World Cup, so it shows how the game has grown,” says Ellis. 



Although local leagues for women have increased on home
soil, there needs to be more opportunities that give African players a chance
to break into the sport and develop their global competitive edge. 



It starts with prioritizing junior levels. 



“Players are getting opportunities to study. I remember back
when we were playing, you were either unemployed or you had a job and 80 to 90
percent of the players were unemployed back then. If you look at the national
team now, 80 to 90 percent of the players have a degree or are currently still
studying. Players are getting opportunities to study or play abroad. We have a
lot of players playing abroad but I think more can be done.”



As a national asset, Ellis argues that focusing on the game
is far more important than worrying about issues that are beyond control. 



Once focus is lost, it manifests in all areas.&nbsp; 



“When people ask me about the money, I tell them I am a
technical person. You tend to concentrate more on your job as a coach and leave
the rest, because you can get side-tracked by all the other things. We don’t
worry about those things,” she says.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="945" height="611" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Soccer4-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-41377" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Soccer4-1.png 945w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Soccer4-1-300x194.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Soccer4-1-600x388.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Soccer4-1-768x497.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 945px) 100vw, 945px" /><figcaption>Desiree Ellis and Portia Modise&#8217;s portraits at the SAFA headquarters. Picture: Gypsenia Lion</figcaption></figure>



“As a technical person, your job is to prepare the team, [use] the training sessions to improve the individual and the team. That is why we have a manager, but when it influences team performance, I come in.” 



As the national team jets off to face world soccer, Ellis is
working round the clock to ensure that the team will make the nation proud. 



“Coaching is not just blowing the whistle, there are other
things in between. You need a schedule; people want to know what you are doing.
You have to do reports as well, so it is not about blowing the whistle at the
end of the game.” 



It’s also about analyzing the opponents with the technical
team and coming up with strategies and a definitive plan of action. 



“Playing against top countries is difficult as they play
regularly against other top countries. That is where you want to measure
yourself and that is where you really want to go out and bloom. People call it
the group of death, but it is what it is. We will just take it one game at a
time.



“If we do more, football in Africa can only grow and grow.”



It seems more work happens off the field than on the field,
and Ellis, who prides herself on her technical prowess, hopes Banyana will pull
up its socks and bring home a glistening&nbsp;
cup.

Desiree

How Banyana Banyana Coach Desiree Ellis Has Become A Game Changer

Early last year the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iaaf.org/home" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">International Association of Athletics Federations</a>(IAAF) introduced regulations requiring South African 800m Olympic champion&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/caster-semenya" target="_blank">Caster Semenya</a>&nbsp;– and other middle distance runners with differences of sex development – to lower their naturally high levels of testosterone.



In February 2019 Semenya’s legal team argued that the policy was invalid. But in May the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tas-cas.org/en/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Court of Arbitration for Sport</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/may/01/caster-semenya-loses-landmark-legal-case-iaaf-athletics">ruled</a>&nbsp;that discrimination in sport is legal provided it is justified.



The way in which the IAAF has gone about dealing with Semenya raises serious legal and ethical concerns. And Semenya isn’t the only athlete involved. This is an issue that goes beyond just the difference of sex development. It goes to the fundamental root of human dignity, of privacy of every athlete who participates at the World Championships.



There are ethical concerns about the way in which the research was conducted that led to the decision. The legal concerns revolve around serious fundamental rights concerns, in particular in the way a number of female athletes have been treated.



In a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sportsandtaxation.com/2017/01/you-can-play-as-long-as-you-dont-win-legal-perspectives-on-the-regulations-pertaining-to-the-participation-of-women-with-hyperandrogenism-in-womens-athletics/">paper</a>&nbsp;I wrote two years ago – “You can play as long as you don’t win: Legal perspectives on the regulations pertaining to the participation of women with hyperandrogenism in women’s athletics” – I explored the big ethical and legal problems I believe are involved in Semenya’s case, as well as those of dozens of other women.



My view is that some women are being singled out because they are different. If Semenya looked different, if she was a blonde bombshell or if she didn’t win, we wouldn’t be having this debate today.



My big concern is that if this ruling by the Court for Arbitration in Sport remains unchallenged, this way of thinking and behaving might filter into the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.olympic.org/the-ioc" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">International Olympic Committee</a>, the overarching body that regulates sport. That, in turn, will affect all its affiliations. These include the national Olympic committees and international federations like the IAAF and Fifa and the national associations under them.



That’s fundamentally wrong.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The ethics question</h2>



The first problem lies in the way in which the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wada-ama.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">World Anti-Doping Authority</a>&nbsp;has behaved. The World Anti-Doping Authority and national anti-doping authorities – which operate parallel to the other sporting bodies – are supposed to be independent. The World Anti-Doping Authority should be a completely separate, independent body that checks on the sports federations to ensure they enforce anti-doping measures uniformly and in a correct manner.



In reality, this isn’t the case.



This is how it works. At an event like the World Athletic Championships, it will be responsible for conducting the anti-doping tests. It will set up its own anti-doping control stations; collect the samples.



As part of the process athletes who enter agreements to participate in World Athletic Championships will also give consent to the World Anti-Doping Authority to conduct these tests. Part of that consent is also that the agency will, in terms of the rules, keep these samples for up to 10 years. They can re-test later for substances but they can also conduct research on anti-doping matters.



That’s important.



What happened in practice was that in 2011 and 2013 the IAAF instructed athletes to give both urine and blood samples. The reason given was that they were developing what is called a biological passport. This is an athlete’s biological profile that’s developed over a period of time. A sudden anomaly could indicate that there’s a doping or some other issue.



The problem is that IAAF passed these samples onto its medical team, the medical commission, which conducted its own research to determine the hormone levels of the athletes.



The argument being forwarded by the IAAF is that this is about doping. But the World Anti-Doping Agency ruled that the regulations on hyper-androgenism or difference of sex development have nothing to do with anti-doping.



This raises the question: if biological samples that have been collected for one purpose by one entity are passed onto another entity to do research for which consent has not been given, is this a lawful use of that sample?



The basis of modern ethical biological research and medical treatment is the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Declaration of Helsinki</a>. Though not an internationally legally binding document, it’s nevertheless set the standard for a lot of countries, including South Africa, that have developed their own biomedical laws.



In South Korea – where the tests took place – the Helsinki Declaration led to the adoption of the Bioethics and Safety Act. This states that to conduct any form of biomedical research you need the informed consent of the individuals. But none of the athletes – and I have spoken to a number who have participated at these championships – have been informed these samples could be used on hormone research.



Lots of countries have similar rules. For example Monaco, where the IAAF is based, has a strong requirement that there must be proper, informed consent.



One thing all of these laws have in common is that the consent can be withdrawn at any stage and there should be no penalty for that. And it’s a criminal offence if one does not obtain the proper, informed consent.



This issue has been raised repeatedly with the IAAF throughout the process. But to no avail.



I’m still to see that there is a single form or indication that any athlete has been properly informed of the nature of the research conducted, who will conduct the research, what the possible consequences are, what it means for the athlete and how their identity is being protected in the process.



The IAAF has not been able to produce any of this. And the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed these arguments and considered all the evidence that had been collected in spite of the lack of informed consent.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Human rights</h4>



The second major issue relates to massive human rights concerns.



The rights I’m referring to are set out in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">European Convention on Human Rights</a>, in particular Articles 2 and 8.



Let me begin with Article 8 which I believe should have been applied and was in fact raised before the court. It provides that everyone has the right to respect for private and family life. In the case of&nbsp;<a href="https://swarb.co.uk/solomakhin-v-ukraine-echr-15-mar-2012/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Solomakhin v Ukraine</a>, for example, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that any compulsory medical intervention, even if it was of a minor importance, constituted an interference with this right.



Effectively coercing a healthy athlete into taking hormone treatment is certainly a compulsory medical intervention. They can argue that she has the choice. But there is no choice.



For its part, Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine provides that the interest of welfare of each human being takes precedence over the interest of society.



Even the IAAF’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iaaf.org/about-iaaf/documents/constitution">constitution</a>, in article 3, gives a commitment to human rights with ethical values, while the Olympic Charter is against any form of discrimination and is for the promotion of women, equality of men and women, sport for all.



These have all been laid bare as empty promises.



-Steve Cornelius; Professor of Private Law, University of Pretoria



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caster1

Caster Semenya: The Legal And Ethical Issues That Should Concern Us All

The South African women’s football coach, Desiree Ellis, on the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Cup, and why it is important to plan for a future after football. 

<ol>
<li>What are your biggest challenges coaching a national women’s soccer team? </li>
</ol>
I think it’s the same everywhere when you have to prepare for a match a week before the game.
<ol start="2">
<li>Would you say being a coach in South Africa is a lucrative career?</li>
</ol>
We have a semi-professional league, the Sasol League, many of the coaches have their own jobs so it is all about the passion and trying to make a difference.
<ol start="3">
<li>The biggest lesson you learned in your career? </li>
</ol>
Together, we can do anything. Football is a team sport but it is not just about the players, but the staff as well, each and every one has to play its part for it to be a success.
<ol start="4">
<li>As a woman, have you experienced discrimination on the field and how did you deal with it? </li>
</ol>
[There is a] lot of stereotyping that girls should not play football, but I had the support of both my parents and that’s all that mattered. I remember going to a match and guys walking by saying ‘let’s go watch these girls play and have a laugh’. After the game, they were our biggest supporters. We just tried to play the best we could and showed that we love the game and have the skills to play.
<ol start="5">
<li>What qualities do you believe make a good team? </li>
</ol>
There will always be special players in any team but teamwork is the most important for me, as the individualism of the special players will shine brighter through teamwork. The 2018 FIFA World Cup is a perfect example. The teams with a special player left the competition early…the likes of Belgium, England, Croatia and France who had special players but were more reliant on teamwork stood the test of time with France beating Croatia in the final.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sometime-in-africa/2012/10/01/football-money-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Football is Money in Africa</a>
<ol start="6">
<li>What is the one thing soccer players take for granted? </li>
</ol>
Not taking care of tomorrow as there has to be a future after football because not everyone is going to play professional football. When I was playing, especially in the national team, 90% of the players were unemployed but now 90%, if not more, have degrees or are currently studying.
<ol start="7">
<li>What is more important to you, time or money? </li>
</ol>
Definitely time. It might take a lot of time and effort to get where you want to be, but it will be time spent wisely.
<ol start="8">
<li>How do you stay financially prudent? </li>
</ol>
I try to stay within my budget but sometimes it’s very difficult as I like to spoil my nieces and nephews but I also try to save money monthly.
<ol start="9">
<li>The moment you step on the field, you….?</li>
</ol>
Immediately focus on the task at hand, getting the most of our training session; reaching our objective for the session.

Football – 2018 COSAFA Womens Cup – South Africa – Team Announcement – SAFA House

A Future After Football

Not only is the Football World Cup the most watched sporting event in the world, it is also among the most lucrative. It makes more money than any other sporting spectacle apart from the Olympic Games and attracts more eyeballs than anything else on the small screen.
The 2014 World Cup reached almost half the global population of 7 billion people, according to a report released by FIFA and Kantar Media. In-home television audiences were reported at 3.2 billion people, with the final viewed by a billion people – and everything about the World Cup just keeps super-sizing.
In 2026, 48 teams will compete at the World Cup, 16 more than the current field of 32; 80 matches will be played, 18 more than the current 64; and revenue will skyrocket with FIFA’s early calculations suggesting a more than $700 million hike in profits.
While those eye-popping numbers can be ogled at and analyzed over the next nine years, for this year’s tournament FIFA have continued the trend of increasing the prize money for the World Cup, which has happened for the last five editions. In 2018, rewards have increased by 40%.
A total of $400 million will be shared among the 32 participating teams, with each team set to finish with a minimum of $9.5 million ($1.5 million in preparation fee and $8 million for a group stage exit). The winners will take home $38 million.
That’s a lot of many to dish out for an organization that spent a significant time between May 2015 and February 2016 muddling through a massive corruption scandal, which resulted in 18 people and two corporations being indicted and a complete change of the guard.
Sepp Blatter&#8217;s 17-year reign at FIFA was ended when he was slapped with an eight-year ban (since reduced to six years) for an unethical offering of a cash gift and conflicts of interest. He was replaced in an interim capacity by Cameroon’s Issa Hayatou, who served president of the Confederation of African Football for 29 years and was initially accused of accepting a bribe, a charge he denied. In fact, no-one involved in the scandal was African, though a payment of $10 million from Danny Jordaan – president of the South African Football Association – to FIFA, which was then sent on to Jack Warner, head of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association, apparently intended as developmental support, was key in Warner’s downfall. Jordaan escaped unscathed.
Hayatou was never intended to be a long-term appointment and handed over to Gianni Infantino in 2016. At 46 years old, Infantino became the youngest FIFA president since the Second World War, but has yet to properly win the hearts or minds of the football-following public.
A survey endorsed by Transparency International in March last year, 12 months after Infantino took over, revealed that 53% of the 25,000 fans who responded to the questionnaire do not have confidence in FIFA as an organization, while 98% of people claimed to still be concerned about corruption. More tellingly, for the purposes of this story and the tournament that will take place in June, 43% of people disapproved of Russia as hosts for the World Cup.
Some of that sentiment stems from the process of allocating World Cup hosts, which was investigated and shown to be questionable, some of had come from Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine and the third group of nay-sayers would have been those appalled by the history of racism in the Russian game, something that remains of particular concern for African players. Feelings aside, on June 14 the first whistle will blow and the tournament will kick off.
FIFA will hope the flagship event will take some of the focus off a turbulent last few years and pave the way for a more transparent and inclusive future. Here is a complete guide to what the organization is hoping can be forgotten, how the World Cup will be funded and what the African continent can hope to achieve from sport’s greatest showpiece.
<h2>Financial Losses and Forecasts</h2>
The effects of the scandal that dogged FIFA through most of 2015 were largely financial. An article published by The Economist in June 2017, revealed that FIFA lost three times more money in 2016 than in 2015 – $369 million – and were forecasting an even greater deficit in 2017, of $489 million. But in March 2018, FIFA’s annual report revealed losses of only $191.5 million in 2017, leading to the organization declaring itself as having had a “successful year for all key financial parameters”.  Still, FIFA’s reserves, which had been above $1 billion since 2008, dipped.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/politics/2015/07/01/fbi-tackles-fifa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The FBI Tackles Fifa</a>
Not all of the loss was due to the scandal; it was also attributed to more funding for members and changes to the accounting system. Legal bills more than doubled, from $20 million in 2015 to $50 million in 2016, and FIFA invested in a museum which cost $190 million, which added to their total costs.
FIFA anticipates a smoother financial road in its next four-year cycle and expects to earn $6.65 billion between 2019 and 2022 inclusive. It also plans to raise payouts to member associations in that time, with each to receive $1.5 million, an increase of $250,000 and FIFA hopes to end the 2022 World Cup with reserves of $1.9 billion.
“I am very pleased to see that Fifa is able to deliver on its promises,” Infantino said. “We had committed to restoring trust in the organization and boosting investments for the development of football worldwide. This is now a reality.”
<h2>Sponsorship</h2>
A major consequence of the corruption scandal was the loss of sponsors, which make up a significant portion of World Cup revenue. Big name companies such as Sony, Emirates, Castrol and Johnson &amp; Johnson opted not to renew their contracts. By June last year, FIFA had only secured 12 sponsors out of 34 for the World Cup and only one of them was Russian, Moscow’s Alfa-Bank. “With one year to go, this situation is unheard of,” Michael Payne, a former marketing chief for the International Olympic Committee told The Economist at the time.
Since then, FIFA have lined up several more firms, many of them Chinese. Wanda, a private-property developer, electronics company HiSense, smartphone maker Vivo, dairy company Mengniu, and electric vehicle firm Yadea, were all signed on by February as Chinese interest in FIFA grows.
“Mengniu is one of the biggest dairy producers in the world and is a strong brand in the Chinese market. Growing the game worldwide is one of our key priorities, and we now have another strong official sponsor in such an important region,” FIFA’s commercial manager Philippe Le Floc’h said when the dairy company signed off.
China’s interest in FIFA is particularly intriguing because of the country’s interest in hosting the World Cup. Chinese president Xi Jinping met with Infantino last June and a statement released by FIFA said Jinping had “expressed his hope, and the dream of many Chinese people, that the country would have the opportunity to host a FIFA Men’s World Cup at some stage in the future.”
Though China has not made any official statements about bidding for a tournament, speculation is high that they are interested in either the 2030 or 2034 edition.
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways have replaced Emirates until 2022, the year in which the World Cup will be held in Qatar.
<h2>Africa’s Big Five </h2>
This year, the continent will be represented by three North African and two West African teams, but current Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) champions Cameroon are not among them. Neither are any teams from the east or south of the continent, which largely stems from the professional experience of players from these regions. North and West African players often gain experience in European leagues, especially France, while players in the east and south are less likely to find deals abroad.
Big things will be expected from the five nations, especially as no African team has progressed beyond the quarterfinals of a World Cup. A final four finish will be considered a major triumph as the continent continues to dream of its first world champions.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/politics/2016/02/01/111-years-fifa-not-african/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: ‘For 111 Years Fifa Has Not Had An African’</a>
On paper, Tunisia enter the tournament as the best hope. They are the highest-ranked side of the continent, 23rd overall, and have not been at the World Cup since 2006. They have never got past the group stage but with players like Youssef Msakni, who scored a hat-trick against Guinea during qualification and has netted 14 times in 51 international appearances, that could change. The challenge begins early, with their opening match to be played against England, something coach Nabil Maâloul believes will be a true test of character against players from what he calls “the best league in the world.”
For nostalgic reasons, Senegal may be the team considered most likely to break into the semi-finals. They are still regarded as darlings of Africa after they stole hearts with their surge to the 2002 quarterfinals, in their maiden World Cup. They have not been to the tournament since and may not have made it to this one but for a case of match-fixing in the qualifiers, which allowed them to replay a match against South Africa. Their coach, Aliou Cissé, was the captain in 2002, so he will be coming full circle for this event. Their hopes will rest on Sadio Mane, who was the most expensive African transfer when he was bought by Liverpool for $48.2 million on a five-year deal in 2016.
Morocco are Africa’s third-side, ranked 42nd, and have not been to the World Cup since 1998. Their coach Hervé Renard has overseen two successful AFCON campaigns, with Zambia in 2012 and Ivory Coast in 2015. Morocco’s strength is their defence, after they finished unbeaten during the qualifiers without conceding a single goal. Their captain, Medhi Benatia, is regarded as the most accomplished member of their squad. He plays for Italian giants Juventus and Morocco will need his experience in a tough group that includes Spain and Portugal.
Egypt have been away from the global game longest, having last played in a World Cup in 1990. Since then, everything about Egypt has changed, with the Arab Spring having profound effects on society and sport. The football league was cancelled for two seasons between 2011 and 2013 and the game suffered tremendously. Despite being seven-time AFCON champions, Egypt failed to qualify for the 2012, 2013 and 2015 editions of the tournament and have also never won a World Cup game. Now, they can change that. In their squad is the veteran goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary, who is 44 years old and will play in his first World Cup, and 25-year-old Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah, who has been compared to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo recently. He has scored 32 goals in 56 internationals, including five during World Cup qualifying, the joint-highest in the campaign.
Lowest ranked among the African sides at 52nd overall, but perhaps with the highest expectation, is Nigeria, who are making their third successive World Cup appearance and seventh overall. They were the first African team to qualify for the World Cup, a surprise considering they missed out on the last two AFCONs. They have a strong squad which includes John Obi Mikel, a Chelsea stalwart who has since moved to China, Chelsea’s Victor Moses and 21-year-old striker Kelechi Iheanacho, who played for Manchester City before moving to Leicester City. Nigeria have been drawn with Argentina for the fifth time at a World Cup and that will be their key clash on the field. Off the field, Nigeria have long had problems between the players and the football federation surrounding bonuses around World Cups. An agreement on a pay structure was reached late last year.

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				Youssef Msakni, Tunisia. Photograph proveded.
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				Essam Kamal Tawfik El-Hadary, Egypt. Photograph provided
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				Medhi Benatia, Morocco. Photograph provided.
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<h2>Racism </h2>
There is a danger, however, that the performances of Africa’s teams will be affected by the reception they receive in the tournament’s host nation. Russia is the country in which African footballers have faced the most brazen forms of racism. In 2015, anti-discrimination group Fare revealed research of over 100 incidents of racist behavior in Russian football over two seasons and high-profile players, including Ivorian superstar Yaya Touré and Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, have complained about being on the receiving end of monkey chants. Touré has even offered his assistance to World Cup organizers to prevent the abuse continuing.
“I have been abused by racism and because those things happened to me, I try to be involved and I want to help those people who don&#8217;t have a voice to control this situation,” Toure said. “For me to defend an African boy in this situation is a blessing. What we are looking to do is to try and stop those idiotic people doing that. We have to be focused and have fair play everywhere.”
Touré’s help has not been taken up but Russia has appointed an anti-racism official Alexei Tolkachev, who admitted to The New York Times in 2015 that as young man, he participated in monkey chants, like many compatriots of the same age. “They do it because it was done before and because they don’t know any better,” he said. While Tolkachev advocated for greater education, he also shrugged off the problem, even though FIFA have indicated they will take it seriously.
Infantino has given referees the power to stop or even abandon matches if discriminatory incidents take place and recent evidence suggest that could well be the case. In January this year, Russian club Spartak Moscow posted a video on Twitter of three of its own Brazilian players, Luiz Adriano, Pedro Rocha and Fernando in training in the United Arab Emirates with the words, “See how chocolates melt in the sun.” The tweet was deleted but not before anti-discrimination group Fare condemned the club for showing, “a shocking level of ignorance.” The players involved, who are all black, later denied that any racism existed in Russian football.
<h2>Kick off </h2>
Despite myriad concerns facing the World Cup, it will go ahead and though there is much to discuss and debate, there is also much to look forward to.
For the first time, video assistant referees will be used at a World Cup, showing a move to embrace technology in decision making. In total, 100,000 jobs have been created and 30,000 volunteers will be used. Russia expects over a million visitors as fans from around the world make their way to the tournament, three million to fill the stadiums and more than three billion to watch on television. The numbers are staggering and only confirm that no matter what happens behind the scenes, the World Cup remains an all-encompassing global spectacle.
Let’s hope Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia make Africa proud.
&#8211; By Firdose Moonda

Football players shooting

Big Money, Big Dreams: Africa’s Chances At The World Cup

As a young girl, Karabo Mathang-Tshabuse would step beyond the confines of her Soweto home to kick around a soccer ball in the dusty streets of her neighborhood. She didn’t play really well, she admits, but in her mind, she heard the rousing cheers of her community, the cheers of a township brought together by sport.
Little did she know these cheers would one day come true – though not for playing the sport, but for getting others to play it.
Soweto, one of South Africa’s oldest and most historical townships, has produced political leaders and Nobel laureates, and some of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs and sportsmen. Among them, star soccer player Jomo Sono, who lived three houses away from Mathang-Tshabuse.
With sportsmen next door, and a father who was soccer-crazy himself, she didn’t have to look far for influences.
“I was a daddy’s girl and I wanted to score points with him, he would watch soccer and I would want to please him and would yell ‘offside, offside’ to show I understood the game,” she says.
When you meet her, Mathang-Tshabuse is petite but ambitious and feisty – she spent nearly a decade battling with club managers, bidding for the best contracts for her clients.
At the age of 21, Mathang-Tshabuse became the first woman in South Africa to be a SAFA (South African Soccer Federation) and FIFA-accredited soccer agent. Soccer was not by design, she says. It happened quite by chance.
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“It was never a dream of mine to be an agent; the truth is I fell into it.”
Mathang-Tshabuse was always precocious. She was only 13 when she started working, doing small jobs in radio and retail, whilst figuring out the real purpose of her life.
She went on to do a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Media Studies, subjects she chose on account of her proximity to politics – her father Ruby Mathang is the MMC of Economic Development for the City of Johannesburg.
Her weekends at university were spent watching soccer games with friends, who would later help her start P Management – P for Player, Professional or pomotso, meaning comfort, she says.
“We wanted to do coaching clinics, accumulate money and then represent players,” she says.
Their first cue was media reports of the lifestyles and spending habits of soccer players. She thought it would be a good idea to approach them and say “let us look after your affairs”.
“You have people from a background where there is no education in terms of finance and addressing the media, no education in terms of how to live in the public domain,” she says.
Along with a trio of like-minded friends – one of them now her husband – she launched the company in 2007. Thankfully, the business received a favorable response.
“From getting booked every weekend, it kind of grew and we could accumulate the capital.”
The next step was looking at what representing a soccer player meant, especially in terms of capital.
It took them two years to move into an office and have enough money to manage players full-time, handling their contracts and protecting their interests.
“It was exciting, the terrain was unset, the landscape undefined, it was an area where we could go in and set the tone and there weren’t that many competitors and yet there was a lot of demand for representation.”
The early days, when she was merely in her 20s, were exciting, as she hobnobbed with the chairmen of soccer clubs, and represented those close to her age.
“To have them have confidence in me was the confidence-booster,” she says of her earlier clients.
Her reception from the club heads in this male-dominated industry was a “mixed bag”. Some were intrigued by her presence – “what is this young girl doing?” – whereas others just did not want her there, not because she was a woman, she believes, but because agents are not generally welcome.
The only difference between a male and female soccer agent, she reckons, is the men are more business-minded. As a female soccer agent, she feels it her responsibility to continue to promote female soccer players as most agents don’t do so – there is not a lot of money in their game.
“I’m inclined to find talent so I do approach players that are female but it does not make me inclined to them. I am aware of the limitations of where you can take women because our professional game is not at the same level as the guys.”
Mathang-Tshabuse and her husband Josy Tshabuse have two daughters who are already showing an interest in soccer but she secretly hopes they become anything but a soccer agent, unless it’s a “calling”.
“That is why I believe I fell into football, I wouldn’t have chosen this for myself,” she says, as it’s a taxing job.
From scouting out a player to traveling with them from club to club and marketing them, there may be no returns on expenses incurred in promoting an amateur player, especially if they do not get signed.
“It’s like flushing money down the drain.”
Another concern is the uncertainty in the sector at the moment with the threat of agent fees dropping from 10% to 3%, making it harder to break-even with entry-level players.
It took Mathang-Tshabuse three attempts to get accredited as a soccer agent and as someone who never experienced failure, she would not accept it – but that was the only way up.
“The agent exam that I failed the first time was my first test as to how I was going to respond, I knew what it meant to pass, I knew I wasn’t doing it for myself, I was doing it for the hundreds of other girls that would pioneer in areas that are uncharted.”
She set her mind on passing the exam.
“Once I set my mind on something, I had to get it, I was like, ‘who are you? How dare I fail you’?”
The second time she took the exam, she failed again but by then, she knew she would keep trying until she passed.
Once licenced, another challenge lay ahead: she had to get access into the clubs.
“It was challenging in that you weren’t given the space, you had to create the space for yourself but I must say it was the time of my life, I was making an impact, living for a purpose.”
One story Mathang-Tshabuse relates often is of taking a third division player and getting him into a premier league. She had to negotiate hard for the player and decided to walk away.
The club called back because they realized he was good and offered more than triple the amount they had initially put on the table for him.
He didn’t disappoint, with about 18 appearances in his first season, he was then in demand by other pro teams.
“Taking someone from a third division, to premier, to being demanded is why I do the work I do,” she beams.
South African football club Orlando Pirates’ Mbongeni Gumede and Banyana Banyana’s Amanda Dlamini are a couple of players Mathang-Tshabuse represents.
The future for her company is sports law. Mathang-Tshabuse believes there are areas in football and sports law that are not really addressed; for instance, she says many sportsmen don’t know much about anti-doping regulations.
“This is the one thing that I’m actually more excited about, being able to represent players and not only market them. The legal side fascinates me so much.”
She is now studying for a law degree at the University of the Witwatersrand and eventually hopes to represent athletes in other sports, for example cricket.
Her game has only just begun.

IMG_5101

Dribbling Through The Barriers

Lydia Nsekera was widowed when she was 36 years old. As a member of Burundian aristo-cracy, she could have turned to her family for financial support, but she chose not to. Instead, Nsekera took over her husband’s car repair company and used her skills as an internal auditor to turn it into a successful business.
At the same time, the Burundian Football Federation (FFB) was drowning in debt. The association had suffered severe financial mismanagement, was sanctioned by FIFA and faced an uncertain future. It only took the FFB a few months to see the improvements Nsekera had made at her garage before it approached her for assistance.
At face value it was an odd match. Nsekera was not a soccer player. She spent her school days playing basketball and competing in high jump, but had become interested in the game though her father and kept an eye on it over the years. Nsekera was savvy, and the FFB decided it could use someone with her acumen to lift it out of crisis.
When she was asked to accept a nomination for president of the federation, Nsekera was hesitant. She did not doubt her own ability but was unsure if she would be given the free rein she needed to turn around the ailing organization. She agreed to stand, provided she would be allowed to overhaul the structures if she was elected. The FFB agreed and Nsekera won the vote ahead of two male candidates.
A decade later, she became the first – and only – woman to sit on FIFA’s decision-making executive committee in its 109-year history, establishing herself as the pioneer for women’s representation in a man’s world.
“It’s massive for women and I hope our federation and other federations can follow the same path,” says Fran Hilton-Smith, the technical director of the South African Football Association (Safa).
“For example, in South Africa, we only have two women on the national executive committee and one of them is seconded from the PSL. It’s just the reality that football is still male-dominated, but like [Nsekera] has shown, to be successful as a woman, you need to be very determined.”
Hilton-Smith calls it “a miracle”, as it was previously unheard of for a woman to occupy such a senior position in a country’s soccer association. Of FIFA’s 209 member associations, Burundi’s is the only one to have a woman at its helm.
“For her to have been given that position was unprecedented,” says Hilton-Smith.
In her first year at the FFB, Nsekera achieved two major feats. She revived the national league, which had been dormant for three seasons, and rekindled the organization’s relationship with FIFA – to the extent that the soccer governing body agreed to pay for a new office complex for the FFB.
During Nsekera’s tenure, the Burundian league grew to three divisions, FIFA has funded another development project in the country and approved a plan for a national training center in the capital, Bujumbura. The country also held its first women’s soccer championship and the under-17 team won the East African regional competition.
The fortunes of Burundi’s national team have not changed as dramatically. They narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 2008 Africa Nations Cup, but rose from 147th to 104th in the rankings. Now they lie at 124th.
Officials at the FFB do not blame Nsekera for the team’s middling fortunes; instead they have praised her for what she has achieved so far.
“She will go as far as she wants, thanks to her work ethic and authority,” says Jeremie Manirakiza, the executive secretary of the FFB.
By her own admission, Nsekera’s success has come through slog. She has told Associated Press her recipe is simple. “I work, I work and I work.”
With that as her mantra, Nsekera has sat on the executive council of both the East and Central African Football associations, and was part of FIFA’s independent governance commission, as well as its radio and television sub-committee. Her role in furthering the cause of women has extended to serving on the African Women’s Football Commission, the Women’s World Cup Commission and the International Olympic Committee’s Women and Sport Commission.
Promoting the women’s agenda will be one of her focal points on the FIFA executive committee, but it cannot be her only one. The 25-person executive committee makes all the rulings that govern the world game. Members meet at least twice a year and among their most important considerations are the dates and places of FIFA tournaments, not to mention the regulations around how the world body is run.
Given Nsekera’s experience in overhauling an organization, her opinions should carry weight.
“She is on the committee and she will definitely be respected,” Hilton-Smith predicts.
Already, Nsekera has faced naysayers, ironically, other women. A FIFA delegate argues Australia’s Maya Dodd, a former international player and lawyer by trade, who was running against Nsekera, would have been a better choice and that Nsekera was pushed through only because there was much “pandering to the African vote.”
The same members claim Nsekera is not strong enough to take on the job because, “all she ever said at a meeting was: ‘Thank you for taking women’s football seriously’, and that she was only on the executive because Sepp Blatter had handpicked her for the job.
The FIFA boss, who has long supported Nsekera, has described her as a “princess of the game”. Whether or not that is because he wants the backing of the African continent in the future is debatable, but what is certain is that even if Nsekera was given an opportunity driven by someone else’s agenda, she is not one to waste a chance. Just ask the FFB.

Lydia knows how to play ball

The demands of modern football lay stress and strain on the bodies of players, much more than in the past.
It has certainly cut short the careers of some top names that may have been able to play longer, had their bodies not taken such a beating.
The legendary Englishman Sir Stanley Matthews, ‘Shuffling Stan’—the wizard of the dribble for Blackpool and Stoke City, played past 50, before he retired in 1965. That would be impossible today.
Certainly, the game has changed since I started playing in the 1980s.
The science that goes into preparing teams is incredible: there are the biokineticists, nutritionists and even psychologists.
Everything is geared towards creating individuals at the very peak of their abilities , both mentally and physically. This has not only made the game more tactical, but quicker and harder on the body, too.
A 2011 study showed that players, on average, ran 10-11 kilometers in a match, compared to just four kilometers in the 1970s.
In a way it is a vicious circle; science makes the game faster, then we need better science to make players faster.
So does this mean that we are seeing players retire earlier than before because they are unable to keep up?
That is a very broad question, but generally this is the case. You get some players who keep going and defy their age—39-year-old Ryan Giggs of Manchester United, who has been playing in the first team since he was 17, is one of the few.
Camerian great, Roger Milla, played in the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the States at 42 and club football for five years after. He was a great striker, but also a freak of nature in many ways. Milla had incredible natural fitness that few players possess. It is not something acquired or learnt, he was born that way. It was his good fortune.
That is the same in most sports though, look at Martina Navratilova who played tennis until she was almost 50. These people are the exception, not the rule, but they were certainly more common in days gone by.
In football, it is also dependent on where you play and in what position.
Take Paolo Maldini, he was 40 when he retired in 2009 and Alessandro Costacurta, who was 41 when he stopped playing in 2007 for A.C. Milan in Italy’s Serie A.
They both played league football at the highest level, well into their fifth decade, but were allowed to do so, in part, by dint of their defensive positions and the slower pace of the game in Italy.
Would they have been able to play for so long in the hurly-burly of the English Premier League, where the game is less technical but faster? I seriously doubt it.
They were, of course, also tremendous athletes and model professionals, who extended their careers by looking after themselves.
That is where the science comes in. If you look at the oldest players ever to have played in Italy’s Serie A, seven of them have played since 2000 and six of those in the last five seasons.
I was fortunate enough to prolong my career past 40 and did so because of my love of the game. My passion was playing; it didn’t matter to me whether it was for my club or for my country. I am very proud of the fact that I scored my last international goal at the age of 41 in a World Cup qualifier against Liberia in Lusaka in 2004. I was coach then and we were 0-0 in the 68th minute, when I substituted midfielder, Dudley Fichite, for myself. As the coach I was registered to play.
I was highly frustrated that we were not winning and went onto the pitch, on that September afternoon, without even warming up. Armed with a will and determination, with three minutes of injury time to go, I scored a free kick from close to the center circle that seemed to zigzag past the defenders into the net. It sent the 30,000-strong crowd at Independence Stadium into a frenzy and proved a dignified full stop to my international career.
It was difficult to give up and I always said that when I was no longer an asset to my team on the field, I would call it quits. It was a sad day when I did. I have managed to create a different life for myself now, where I am still involved in football and helping it develop. For that, I am thankful.
It was a lot of hard work though; it took dedication and sacrifice and not everybody has that in them. That is the mental side of it.
There have been plenty of studies into the optimal age of an athlete in modern football and they all seem to come back with similar findings, no matter what sport you look at.
On average, players aged between 26 and 29 are said to be at the peak of their abilities, with rare exceptions.
This is because they have the right mix of physical attributes and experience to be of most value to their teams. That is a scary thought when you think Barcelona and Argentina star Lionel Messi is only 25.
This peak lasts, in most cases, until the age of 31, when it becomes harder for them to maintain standards week in, week out.
Statistics from 2011 show that 70% of regular players in the world’s leading clubs are between the age of 23 and 31 for attackers, and 25 and 31 for defenders.
It is after the age of 31 that the numbers tend to drop and that sends the analysts into a tailspin. At Arsenal, manager Arsene Wenger is notorious for only handing out one-year contracts only to players over the age of 30.
One of the leading technical directors in European football recently said that before he renews a veteran player’s contract, he’ll study his statistics. For example: is the player playing fewer games; is he sprinting less often; making fewer tackles than last season?
Prior to all this analysis, all was judged by the gut-feeling of the coach and that probably prolonged a lot of careers. In these days of multi million euro contracts and huge wage bills, there is nothing more dangerous for a club than to have older players on long-term contracts because they cannot be sold easily.
In the past this would have been less of a consideration, you would keep older heads around to teach the youngsters a thing or two. That experience is in many ways now lost and has been replaced by an army of coaches and analysts. That is a symptom of this often strange age of professionalism we live in, where loyalty and experience often goes unrewarded in the search for success.
<div id="attachment_1883" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1883" class="size-medium wp-image-1883" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/APP2001030520544-300x196.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="196" />Cameroon&#8217;s forward Roger Milla celebrates after scoring a goal against Russia 28 June 1994 at Stanford stadium in San Francisco during their Soccer World Cup match. At age 42, Roger Milla became the oldest player ever to score a goal in World Cup history, but could not help his team as Russia won 6-1 with forward Oleg Salenko, scoring a record 5 goals. AFP PHOTO/ANTONIO SCORZA</div>

Old Heads 0; Young Legs 1  (After Extra Time)

No one and nothing can prepare you for what you will face in the world of professional football. Nobody warns you of the ugly side; the side that none of my team mates in Africa cautioned me about.
I started my professional football career in Belgium in late 1985. It was a giant leap from the tiny township of Mufulira, in northern Zambia, to the sophisticated streets of Brugge, the so-called ‘Venice of the north’.
I had achieved a lot in the Zambian league with my team Mufulira Wanderers. I won Zambian Footballer of the Year in 1984 and my career in the national team career was blossoming. The offer to go to Europe to ply my trade was like a dream come true. I felt privileged to have been given a chance to prove myself on the European stage.
I was strong, self-confident and determined to succeed.
In those days, black people were rare in Brugge. In fact, there were only three black players in the two premier league teams, Cercle Brugge and Club Brugge.
There were times at training when one of my team mates would swear they had seen me in town that day. When I told them that I had not left my home the whole day, they would shrug it off by saying: “You all look alike”. At first, it used to get me upset, but later I learnt to laugh about it.
To get to training I needed to take two buses and then walk about 150 meters to the ground, even in the harshest of weather conditions. Initially, all the players driving to training would drive past without as much as a hoot or a glance. As I started to make more impact in training and challenged for a place in the team, they would stop and offer me a lift. I never accepted a lift and continued walking until I bought my own car.
I conquered these examples of belittlement by strengthening my determination to prove to all that I could rise above them and prove my worth as an equal.
When I finally made it to the first team, I got the shock of my life. I was booed by the opposition fans during the warm-up. This was something I had never experienced before. The opposition fans hostility sometimes went on for the entire match.
Through concentration and sheer determination I started ignoring it.
The chants and slurs were part of the game in the late 1980s and, as I began to make a name for myself in the league, I paid less and less attention. This, coupled with resolve and fortitude, helped my mind to shut all of it out. All I wanted was to be respected for my skill, not insulted for the color of my skin. It made me more resolute to succeed.
It needs to be known that making it as a professional footballer does not happen by luck and talent alone. It takes strenuous practice, extreme discipline, unflinching determination, untold sacrifice, laser-sharp focus and dedicated commitment. Players deserve to be respected for this.
It has always been a sad state of affairs when a malevolent minority try to influence the majority. The racist chants in stands have always come from a small portion of the crowd—a small portion so intent on their team winning they would do anything to see the opposition losing, even stooping low to try to degrade them. They find a difference they can pick at and take it to the extreme. I am not sure if walking off the pitch as a reaction to this, as was the case with Kevin-Prince Boateng of A.C. Milan recently, achieves anything but victory for the offending party.
Many football players have been victims at one time or another of crude gestures, monkey noises and booing among other attacks. Players need to soldier on. We are all trying to make it in life.
Most fans around the world attend football games to enjoy the match and encourage their teams. The love outweighs the hate.
FIFA have made their position very clear in article 3 of their statutes: “Discrimination of any kind against a country, private person or group of people on account of ethnic origin, gender, language, religion, politics or any other reason is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion.”
My opinion is that, to try to eradicate this scourge, the authorities need to manage it better. The onus should be on the clubs and national football associations to empower their safety personnel to identify the offenders and act swiftly to remove them from the stadium. They need to be named and shamed and banned from ever attending another game. Doing so would make them think twice before shouting obscenities. If this cannot be done then we need to resort to hitting where it hurts most, by deducting points. I would support such a cause.
Unfortunately, discrimination is alive in our society, practised by a minority convinced that they are superior by one virtue or another. It does not mean we have to tolerate it. We, as the majority, need to kick it out. It is a rare disease that needs to be wiped out. As players, we need to stand tall and be strong, be immune to such pettiness. As fans we need to expose the perpetrators and stop them from infecting others with this disease.
Football is meant to conquer discrimination and adhere to the notion of fair play. Here we are in 2013, 28 years after my European debut, still talking about this scourge. How can we still call it the beautiful game?

The Ugly Side Of  The Beautiful Game

It is a hot and noisy afternoon in a house in Maputo, Mozambique, where around 50 people are celebrating a birthday. Most have one thing in common: they hail from the islands of Cape Verde—a nation with a mere 500,000 people, fewer than Soweto in Johannesburg. They drink Grogue and Ponche the tipple of their ancestors. On the table is Queijo de Cabra (goat cheese) and doce de côco (coconut candy with sweet jelly).
Mozambique is home to around 1,500 people from Cape Verde. Many were born here after their parents fled hard times decades ago. In 2012, they have had something to shout about as their team qualified, against the odds, for the African Cup of Nations in South Africa in January.
<div id="attachment_1491" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1491" class="size-medium wp-image-1491" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/000026743-300x202.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="202" />The Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace. North West Province. South Africa.</div>
One of the party-goers, Maria da Conceição Silva, came to Mozambique with her parents in 1948 when a drought in Cape Verde forced thousands to flee the island. Today she is the vice-president of the Associação Cabo-verdianos em Moçambique.
“The plan is to fill two machibombos [buses] with Cape Verdeans and friends of Cape Verdeans, and drive to the financial capital of South Africa,” she says.
“I did believe this would come one day and that it could have happened before, had it not been for the fact that many of Cape Verdeans’ sons living in Portugal choose to play for the Portuguese national team,” says another ex-patriate from Cape Verde.
The archipelago, just off the coast of Ghana, is made up of 10 islands. Most people live in the capital city, Praia. Cape Verde was ranked second in the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance, an indication that the islands are well-run; it is backed by high literacy levels of 70% across the population.
The national team is called the Tubaroes Azul—Blue Sharks—and is coached by Lúcio Antunes, an air traffic controller who has taken leave to coach the team. The team is ranked 51 on the FIFA rankings—above South Africa, Senegal, Cameroon and Morocco.
Ninety percent of the players play in the lower leagues of Europe. The star players are 22-year-old Ryan Mendes who is in the books of Lille OSC in France and veteran striker Lito, who is based at Portimonense, a second division side in Portugal.
In Cape Verde, football plays second fiddle to basketball. A mere handful of fans waited until the wee hours to welcome the team at Nelson Mandela International Airport, in Praia, after their victory in Cameroon.
Cape Verde is not the only surprise qualifier. Known more for their long-distance runners, the sleeping giants, Ethiopia, have made it back to the tournament after 30 years. Ethiopian Ambassador to South Africa, Yeshimebrat Mersha, believes the nation is on its way to reclaim their rightful place.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1489" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/dreamstime_m_15698047-300x201.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="201" />
“Ethiopia was one of the strongest football nations previously. We are really happy that we are back on track. This is the result of the development plans by the government and good organization by the football federation,” Mersha says.
“We have high expectations for the cup and are ready for the matches. The fans are eager to watch the matches and some of them will travel from Ethiopia to support the team.”
Africa’s second most-populous nation, with 85 million people, had become conspicuous by its absence. Ethiopia was a founding member of the Nations Cup when they were part of the group of nations that formed the Confederation of African football (CAF) in 1957 in Khartoum, Sudan.
The Walya Antelopes are coached by Sewnet Bishaw and have two powerful strikers. Former Orlando Pirates player Fikru Tefera is a bustling striker any defender will struggle to handle. The man to watch is Saladin Seid, who scored the first goal in the final qualifier match against Sudan. He is currently in the books of Wadi Degla in the Egyptian Premier League who paid $200,000 for him.
Neither of the nations is expected to win the tournament ahead of the likes of Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, Ivory Coast and defending champions Zambia. It will not be too much of a surprise if they cause an upset or two. After all, they did not make it to the continent’s premier football competition by sheer luck alone. Be afraid, be very afraid.
<div id="attachment_1492" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1492" class="size-medium wp-image-1492" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/98632409-300x203.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="203" />Stadium</div>

Cape Where?

On March 18, football fans in green and white T-shirts flocked to Kenya’s Nyayo National Stadium to watch the country’s two major clubs playing. But 25 minutes from the end of the game, the referee stopped the match between Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards after fans threw plastic bottles onto the field in protest against one of his decisions.
While condemning the incident, a radio presenter had this to say: “We did not wish them to be unruly, but at least we have fans inside the stadium. That’s a good sign.” The match was sold out.
For the last decade, the country’s sport has been in chaos. Rival federations each ran their own leagues; football chiefs were corrupt, inefficient and ranked high on the list of people Kenyans hated most. A crowd of 100 at a match was considered an achievement. At one point, FIFA banned Kenya from international football after the minister of sports disbanded the Kenya Football Federation (KFF). The body was then charged with running the sport. In 2007, Kenya’s football hit rock bottom as the country’s FIFA ranking fell to 115.
Players in most clubs went for months without pay, resorting to manual work to pay their bills. Pessimism filtered into the national team, which did not qualify for the African Cup of Nations. This was hard to bear for a country that loves football so much that a fan committed suicide after Arsenal’s 2009 Champions League defeat.
But the last few years have seen a football revival. The rivalry between KFF and Football Kenya Limited (FKL) ended when FIFA gave FKL the mandate to run the sport. Recently elections ushered in a team under the banner of Football Kenya Federation (FKF). Then 16 clubs broke away from the squabbling factions to form the Kenya Premier League Limited, which runs the local league. It is owned by the clubs, the federation and representatives of other football stakeholders.
It’s the best decision the clubs could have made. Companies are pouring money into the sport, fans are flocking to the stadiums and footballers are competing for attention with hip-hop artists in the gossip columns.
The sport is also attracting new investors. SuperSport, the South Africa headquartered pay channel has paid $12 million to air KPL matches in a deal expected to run until 2015. SuperSport’s head of Africa, Gary Rathbone, says they spend close to $43,000 a match to air more than 100 games on the channel each season.
“Kenyans love football, so when management got its act together, it was natural for us to partner with them,” says Rathbone. The station has trained more than 20 Kenyans to work in the production department.
Danish investors have also moved in for a piece of the pie. In March last year, they invested $93,000 in futaa.com, a football website that had recorded 1.6 million hits by the end of March this year.
“Our investment in football was because of the opportunity that presented itself. There was no credible site to provide information on players and other important data,” says chief editor at futaa.com, Patrick Korir.
Local business is getting involved too. East African Breweries has forked out $1.3 million to sponsor the national team. This is in addition to the amount it spends on Tusker, its KPL club and top of the league last year. It follows Mumias Sugar, Tuzo and East African Portland Cement, which have spent a total of over a million dollars to sponsor teams at KPL.
The rise of football has also encouraged entrepreneurs. Congolese millionaire Elly Kalekwa has invested millions in Sofapaka, a team that won the league in its debut in 2009. Nkaari Martin, a businessman in his early 20s, won funding to expand Ticket Masters, a firm that had the monopoly to sell match tickets last season.
“In 2007, I attended a league game that had 37 spectators. More than 100,000 tickets were sold last year,” says Korir.
And, players are now being paid for their efforts. Internationals like MacDonald Mariga and Dennis Oliech have inspired local footballers with their flashy rides and bevvies of beauties. Others like Allan Wanga have taken the game a notch higher. Wanga launched a book in March this year at an event attended by Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Despite these gains, hurdles remain. Rathbone says stadiums need to be improved to meet international standards. Only two are qualified to host international matches and one of them is under repair.
“Our football is still mainly political, so our fortunes will remain scant until the day we hit equilibrium between business and politics. Then, business sense will take over,” says Martin.
“And we need to develop our structures, like a young under-19 team,” says Korir. Fans hope the national team, which has not won a major trophy in seven years, can replicate the success at club level.
Though there is still disagreement, this much those on opposing sides recognize: Kenya’s football is no longer scoring an own goal. That is a good start.

Kenya’s Football Revolution

It was a Friday afternoon, June 4 2010, just a few days before one of the biggest days in African history. Flags were on the streets and the mood was festive in the countdown to the 2010 World Cup—the first time the greatest tournament on earth had kicked off on Africa’s red soil.
Mandla Sibeko strolled, in a mellow mood, towards Green Point Stadium in Cape Town, happy in the knowledge that by the opening ceremony on June 11 his job would be done—the end of years of struggle with the rigorous rules of the soccer governing body, FIFA. An angry phone call shattered this mellow mood and ushered in Sibeko’s worst day.
<div id="attachment_235" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-235" class="size-medium wp-image-235" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/282-18_1-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" />Mandla Sibeko thinking about his worst day</div>
Sibeko was used to struggle. He was born in Johannesburg, the youngest of six children, and grew up in poverty near Nelspruit in South Africa’s north-eastern Mpumalanga province; his first school lesson was held under a tree in the village of Kwaggafontein and the floors of the classrooms were made of cow dung, for want of concrete.
“Whenever I smell cattle dung, I think of those early school days,” says Sibeko.
Luckily for Sibeko, his mother was a domestic worker for a wealthy white family in Johannesburg and they offered to pay for his education.
“They have moved to Australia and I sent them an email the other day saying that decision changed my life. They wrote back to say they were proud to do so. It is amazing how one decision can change your life,” says Sibeko with a smile.
From the age of eight, Sibeko went to the elite St Martin’s School in Johannesburg, followed by a degree in law at Wits University. By the age of 24 he had set up his own business, making TV programs for the SABC. In  2007, he became the first person to open a Pick n Pay supermarket—once a preserve of the suburbs—in Soweto.
“In all these businesses I fell and got up many times. Soweto business is the hardest money you will ever earn, the customers are so demanding. I was working from 5am to midnight every day. We wanted to prove you could do business in the townships and we doubled our turnover in the first year.”
Sibeko became a shareholder in Identity and Tone Digital signage companies and then, while still in his late 20s, came the offer of a key job in the staging of the first ever World Cup in Africa. In 2008, British company Icon, which had helped to stage three World Cups, made Sibeko the CEO, along with a 40% stake, of their South African subsidiary. The job was to oversee the signage for the entire tournament. It was a huge job and Sibeko also saw it as a way to strike a blow for Africa.
“In my work I wanted to tackle this Afro pessimism—we dealt with people who doubted us. People were asking us: “do you really know what you are doing?”
The job entailed making sure all was correct on the flags, buses, hotels, signposts and banners at the country’s 10 World Cup stadiums.
“It was painful because you have to think for people. Everyone has an opinion, the Local Organizing Committee has an opinion, FIFA has an opinion; no one is right or wrong. Signage alone is a problem. Sometimes it arrives and is the wrong size and you have to send it back to Bloemfontien on a truck. Print quality can be poor, colors wrong and the position of the logo can be wrong. FIFA is very fussy—it’s their way or no way. They want it to be done better than the last World Cup.”
So Sibeko oversaw a rigorous system of checks. There was a long list of checks before the signs got to the printers; at the printers there was another check; then the signs were checked again before they were loaded onto trucks and yet again at their destination.
All this counted for nothing at 2pm on June 4 2010 when a top FIFA official screamed down the phone at Sibeko, just hours before an inspection team was due to tour Green Point Stadium.
“She was furious. There was no kindness about it, it was: ‘you guys have messed it up!’
The terrible truth was the misspelt word: “Welcme” hanging over the main entrance to the stadium. It wasn’t a welcoming sight for Sibeko.
“I don’t know what happened. It was 20 to 30 meters tall. This was a huge mistake. The A team of the World Cup was coming to inspect and what we had promised was not ready. We freaked out. I felt cold. We all expected this day. This was our do or die moment, we had worked for nearly four years and now we were going to mess it up because of a missing ‘o’.”
The crisis could have been costly. From this moment on, in the balance was a multimillion-dollar contract. Sibeko had to act fast.
“I called all the stadiums to check out if they had the same problem. It was difficult to find people quickly. At that point I was very anxious, I wanted to know whether we had made more mistakes along the way. I started to think about whether flags were facing the right way up when Sepp Blatter drives past. I froze, I didn’t know what to do. I am normally a very calm person, but on that day my staff said they had never seen me like that.”
The next step was to call a printer in Cape Town to make a new sign. It wasn’t easy as many World Cup service providers had lots of work, so it was easy for them to say no. Otherwise, Sibeko would have had to rope in a Johannesburg printer to get a new bulky banner flown down to Cape Town. For the first time in the day, lady luck smiled on Sibeko and a Cape Town printer agreed.
Then there was the problem of getting the huge banner up at the stadium before the inspectors arrived on the following day. It was already dark when the truck pulled up with the banner. So, by poor light, a team of 10 workers scaled ladders.
“They had problems because it was dark. They started at 8pm and
finished at midnight. We had another 10 people on the ground from my company and many of them were ready to walk because they were overstretched and felt they were not appreciated. Not everyone felt the importance of the biggest sporting event in the world. I said to them that I understood they were all under pressure. I talked about patriotism; this was their country, I told them, they had to keep going because they were doing this for their country. Maybe Mandela would have been proud of me!”
Crisis averted, thanks to elbow grease and a friendly Cape Town printer, but for Sibeko, his worst day put a damper on the greatest show on earth.
“That was the end of my torture, but then it became a difficult process because you had let down the client in the closing stages. When everyone was celebrating we were suffering. The opening I didn’t enjoy because I was wondering what else is going to go wrong. As much as the nation was celebrating, I was suffering, I was just wondering when it was all going to come to an end!”
Sibeko went to Brazil earlier this year to see how the country was preparing for the next World Cup.
“I just thought South Africans undervalue themselves. Brazil is so well marketed and yet it doesn’t deliver as much as South Africa does. I have to say we are too hard on ourselves. Stadiums are not going up at all and secondly, there was no sign of commitment from people, there was just a lot of talk. It will be interesting to see how fast they get up to speed.”
Mandla Sibeko offers his World Cup experience to the Brazilians. He hopes, by contrast to 2010, his experience will be as beautiful as the game itself. That would be welcme; sorry, welcome!

Tag: FIFA

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