It has been a great summer for football in Africa, with an unprecedented number of the continent’s national teams qualifying for the FIFA men’s World Cup.
Following the governing body’s decision to increase the number of participants from thirty-two to forty-eight, Algeria, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, DR Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia all appeared at the tournament.
Things got even better when nine of these nations advanced past the group stage into the knockout rounds (the Round of 32), though Morocco and Egypt progressed even further, reaching the Round of 16 phase of the tournament.
During Egypt’s game against Argentina, a heroic battle that at one stage saw the North African nation leading the world champions 2-0, one BBC commentator exclaimed that “the tectonic plates of world football are shifting”.
Ultimately, Egypt was defeated, though the fundamental point about Africa and its football had already been made – that we’re living in changing times, and Africa is rising.
Football has long been popular across the continent, both at national team and club levels, with hundreds of millions of people either playing or watching the game, which is important as they are a source of playing talent and fandom, as well as leaders and managers.
Africa’s star is Morocco, whose men’s team has consistently appeared in the top 20 of FIFA’s national rankings over the last five years, though the team’s victory in the African Cup of Nations earlier this year has since propelled it into the top 10.
Morocco’s success is no accident; it is the outcome of a clear strategy, enabled by government, well-resourced, and targeted at both elite professionals and grassroots levels.
Yet this is not simply a matter of achieving playing success; becoming prominent and doing well in international football brings other benefits, for instance, economic ones.
When South Africa hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the tournament was estimated to add 0.5% to the country’s GDP, an impact helped by 300,000 foreign tourists visiting during the tournament, who injected R15 billion into the economy.
Meanwhile, construction for the event directly created approximately 130,000 temporary jobs, with some estimates suggesting up to 400,000 indirect jobs were supported across the broader economy by the tournament’s hosting.
There are political benefits too; for instance, Cape Verde’s goalkeeper, Vozinha, became one of the tournament’s most recognisable faces, not just for his performances but also for his mother, who made global headlines when her son tearfully revealed she couldn’t afford the US visa bond to attend the World Cup.
Following her Vozinha’s viral comments, a public outpouring of support led US officials to waive her fees and facilitate her travel, allowing her to watch him play in person against Uruguay.
This is not just a sentimental story; it demonstrates the soft power of football, which Africa has in abundance, even though its countries could do more to leverage it.
Back in 2018, when the World Cup was held in Russia, Nigeria’s first-team shirts proved how attractive African nations and their values can be, as the garment sold out in shops across the world and won several design awards.
Both football and sport in Africa are going places; the tectonic plates are truly shifting, and there will be increasing opportunities for its nations to assert themselves as prominent, legitimate and important members of the global sporting community.
If this is to happen, then the sport industry will require skilled, knowledgeable people who can make an effective contribution to Africa’s sport industry.
The likes of Mohammed Salah and Sadio Mane are among Africa’s biggest stars on the field, but the continent also needs stars of marketing, event management, finance, sponsorship and more.
ASE’s new executive programme in Sport Business Management has therefore been created with this purpose in mind – to help build the next generation of African sport management talent.
It is our mission to ensure that African success is maintained in the decades to come.
