Killing African Football

By CHARLES NYENDE, cnyende@ke.nationmedia.com

A new report from the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR) shows that administrators of the game in African are more focused on personal gain than the prosperity of soccer in their country and the development of the national leagues.

Carried out in eight countries, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the report titled “Killing Soccer in Africa” found that while players have sacrificed their personal fortunes to develop soccer and their community the administrators tasked with developing the game focus on personal gain.

Bribery, misuse of funds, unaccountability and general mismanagement of the national associations in the eight countries are exposed in the report that was released last week.

Highest bidder

On Kenya, the report shows how Football Kenya officials sell the national team to the highest bidder in appearance fees yet keep turning to the government to fund their operations.

The report is harsh on Kenyan football leaders saying they only pick up leadership positions in the game to launch political careers at the expense of football development.

Fifa also comes in for criticism in the report. Efforts to wipe out corruption in national soccer associations is derailed by Fifa which keeps stepping in every time a government has tried to address corruption issues by threatening to ban countries citing government interference.

On several occasions over the past decade Fifa has banned Kenya from international football each team the government has dissolved the federation over corruption and mismanagement allegations.

The report shows how Fifa protects corrupt African football managers and in effect abates the practice that has so crippled the development of the game in the continent.

FAIR is a professional association of investigative journalists in Africa. Its mission is to enhance, deepen and build investigative journalism as a profession throughout the continent.

“Killing Soccer in Africa” is the first Arizona project conducted in Africa. In the Global Investigative Journalism Network, the label “Arizona Project” is extended to a team investigating a story that has led to the harassment, injury or death of an individual journalist who first pursued the story alone.

Severely beaten

The Killing Soccer in Africa report set out to finish the work started by Cameroonian journalist, Phillippe Boney, who was severely beaten after he began probing into the financial affairs of CAF president Issa Hayatou.

Its release comes hot on the heels of another report by African Centre for Open Governance titled “Foul Play?” - http://www.africog.org/reports/The%20crisis%20of%20football%20management%20in%20Kenya.pdf