AfricaNews - ‘African football is dying slowly’

‘African football is dying slowly’

Posted on Tuesday 20 May 2008 - 09:43
Redactie AfrikaNieuws
Text and photos Fredrick Mugira in Mbarara, Uganda. See photos below.
This Wednesday the Champions League final is played. English football seems to have been entrenched deep in the minds of Africans. Local football seems irrelevant. What consequences does this have? Africanews.com reporter Fredrick Mugira finds out in Uganda.
John Knyesigye is a barber in Mbarara, a South Western town in Uganda. He is a stalwart supporter of English premiership club Arsenal. He boosts of having watched all Arsenal FC games in the just ended English Premiership football season. “We watch from that video hall” he said, pointing through the window of his salon to a video hall locally known as Kibanda. The video is less than a kilometer away from Mbarara’s Kakyeka Stadium where some football matches of the Uganda’s national soccer league are played.

He however said he had never gone into Kakyeka stadium to watch any super league game. Kanyesigye says local soccer is boring and that is why he prefers European Soccer. His client Abel Toto, a rider of a commercial motorbike locally known as Boda Boda, knows the names of all footballers in his favorite English premiership team Manchester United. He however couldn’t mention any name of a single player in his local soccer team Biharwe FC.

Speaking in the local language, Toto says: “I do not know their name because I don’t like the way they Biharwe FC plays. “Super league matches are boring,” he asserts.

Entrance into some of the stadiums in Uganda goes for about two dollars. Just as much as one would pay as entrance into a video hall to watch an English premiership soccer game plus a soda to drink while watching.

No money

Haruna Kihogo, a player for Biharwe FC says people like Kanyesigye and Toto are the ones to blame for having made their local football team take the last position on the national football league table.” How do you expect to perform better without local support?” Kihogo wonders. “We raise money to support us mostly from gate collections during matches, but if people don’t come to watch the matches, we end up with no money,” Kihogo laments.

Hajji Mulindwa Katabani, a man who risked his funds and invested it in Biharwe FC says he is a disappointed to see his team being relegated from the national soccer league. Mulindwa believes his team has been relegated because of lack of local support.
“If you do not have money, you can’t buy training kits, you can’t pay the players promptly to motivate them and so you end up getting poor results,” Mulindwa stressed.

Mulindwa contends that this is slowly killing soccer in Uganda and several other African countries. The development of African soccer is very slow because Africans themselves lack interest in supporting and promoting local clubs. “How do you expect to develop Ugandan soccer alone?” he laments. He says even people who have enough funds to support such teams shun them because they fear to risk their money in what he called, “such unprofitable ventures.”

Players stop playing

Lack of financial support is not only affecting managers of the local soccer teams, it seems to be affecting the players too. Silag Turyamureba, the Captain of Biharwe FC says he wants to cross to big clubs in the Ugandan super league like Sports Club Villa. He however acknowledges that, even when he is there, funds wouldn’t be enough and so he would use Sports Club Villa as a scapegoat to go to foreign countries to play soccer from there. He prefers Europe.

Biharwe FC pays Turyamureba about 100 dollars a month. He gets this much just because he is a captain. Others get much less. He says this is not enough to support him, his wife and their child and so if he does not join clubs that pay him enough money, he might be forced to leave football and join business. Several other talented footballers have been leaving football in Uganda to join business after failing to earn a living. Muhammed Nyombi, a former national super league player is among several other examples here.

‘Africans must develop African football’

If talented African football players leave their countries to play in foreign countries or leave this sport to find alternatives where they can earn a living, who then will develop local football? Abbas Sendyowa, is a committee member of the Pan African Confederation of African Football (CAF). “There is a problem of lack of interest from Africans themselves. Several Africans have a negative perception that English soccer is more entertaining than their local football, as a result this discourages local talents,” Sendowa contends. Africans must develop African football in the way they want it. This does not mean that it has to be on the standards of European soccer.” Sendyowa, who is also an official on the Federation of Ugandan Football Association, acknowledges that this remains hard to do. He further laments that several African football players love money instead of developing their talent.

Hope

Kabatereine Patrick, a radio presenter who has hosted sports programmes on Radio West, a radio station in Uganda, says there is still hope for Africa soccer. He says that if investors work together with African governments, they can help develop this sport.
He says Africa has many talented footballers but they only need support and grooming up to remain in African clubs. “A lot of European teams are relying on African talents, if such players were lured to stay in African clubs by giving them enough money, they would help to develop African football.” This he says can only be done by African governments and pan African investors. He encourages Africans countries to take an example of Uganda which has waived taxes on imported sports equipment to encourage development of sports in the country.

Lack of confidence

The feeling by several Ugandans and Africans in general that everything in Europe is superior and better than what is in their countries, has made them take football players like Christiano Ronaldo, Henry Thierry, John Terry, Ronaldinho as their football heroes. What happens to their local football players: they don’t care. People do not have confidence and trust in what they have. Lack of confidence and support in African football by Africans themselves is slowly killing this interesting sport on the continent. The disease killing it, is in the minds of its supporters.