Organisers of the African Football Business Summit say African football is an economic opportunity waiting to be fully realised.
Oliver Ochieng, Marabou News Agency
Founder and president of The Football Foundation for Africa Brian Wesaala has urged African governments and football federations to create favourable policies for African broadcasters to broadcast African football.
Speaking during the recently concluded 5th African Football Business Summit (AFBS) in Accra, Ghana, Wesaala said the move will rekindle interest in domestic football leagues and transform passion into commercially successful competitions that generate greater revenue for Africa’s football ecosystem.
Organised under the theme of “From Vision to Value: Building a Sustainable Football Economy in Africa,” the summit focused on moving beyond conversations to partnerships, investment and tangible opportunities.
The Kenyan said it should be made very difficult for foreign football to be aired in Africa, adding that the broadcasting of African football will help drive its growth across the continent.
“Africa at the moment is struggling for an audience with primarily European football. You know, we are not watching our own football and these are things that as much as we want to, you know, challenge, it’s not easy because these were policy decisions that were made, that we find ourselves, all of our talents are showing, the Champions League, the EPL,” he said.
“Reversing that is going to be very difficult, but we need to at least reduce this consumption throughput. It should be very expensive, for example, for people to air foreign football in Africa and our broadcasters, our media should be, not really forced, but incentivised to televise more of our football, because that is what will drive revenue and that is what we can invest to make our football better, because the complaint has always been, oh, European football is better than African football in terms of quality. That is obvious, but for us to really start consuming African football, we need to start investing in Africa, so we must create policies that will incentivise, especially the media, to air more of Africa.”
Since 2022, the African Football Business Summit is convened annually by The Football Foundation for Africa, with a view of discussing the growth of African football: from talent development to infrastructural improvement.
Organisers say football is more than a game; it is an economic opportunity waiting to be fully realised.
Marabou News Agency
Editor: George Mutero
