Old Trafford, Manchester. Lunch-time yesterday, that was the venue for the kickoff of the 2015-2016 English Premier League. Predictably, football fans in Africa are ecstatic as the ‘world’s best league’ returns to their TV screens.
Africa has a large and extremely passionate football following and the English Premier enjoys high levels of popularity with many supporting different clubs in England. The passion for international club football is not restricted to only the English Premier League though as the month of August will see all of European football’s big five leagues- England’s Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, France’s Ligue 1, Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A- begin and run until May intermittently interrupted another massively popular football competition: the UEFA Champions League.
For football fans on the continent, the good times are back but for domestic leagues in Africa, there must a now familiar feeling of envy, disheartenment and possibly annoyance. It is not hard to understand why.
While Africans love European football, the downside has seen domestic leagues relatively ignored. This attention deficit costs domestic football very tangibly as fans are the lifeblood of football. The only reason why sponsorship and media rights are so valuable is because of the vast interest of football fans. Similarly, football’s merchandise market thrives only because fans spend so much to support their teams. Also, despite the incredible numbers quoted for sponsorship deals and media rights, gate takings still represent the highest grossing component of global sports revenue. Basically, the lack of interest in domestic leagues in comparison with European leagues robs Africa’s football leagues of revenue. While some have broadcast deals in place, the value of those deals represent a meager percentage of the global benchmark for such deals. Without significant interest, Africa’s leagues struggle to generate enough revenue to drive critical growth which would hopefully allow them rival European football leagues.
But the fans cannot be blamed. Primarily, football is a sport but in the 21st century, football is much more- it is entertainment. European football leagues have been successfully glamorized and beyond a sporting competition, they are regarded as products. For fans, these leagues, given their long-term existence and evolution, are better offerings than African leagues. The game has undergone lots of changes over the years and just as the level of quality on the pitch has increased, so has the level of strategic planning and execution at boardroom level. Thinking of football as a product ensures that the game- which is no less of a sport even when monetized- can be a viable commercial venture.
To do this, many football associations in Africa need to revamp the structure as well as overhaul the modus operandi of the league. Creating a product must function along the lines of thought behind creating a brand. First is courting, earning and deserving trust in the brand. The current malaise which plagues leagues in Africa- horrid scheduling, poor officiating, abundance of stadium violence and corruption- means that very few take these leagues seriously and all these issues must be decisively handled.
As Manchester United kick off the English Premier League season against Tottenham tomorrow, Africans will once again be paying attention from thousands of miles away while continuing to largely ignore football leagues close to home but- as earlier suggested- they cannot be blamed.