Football in Africa: Are the ‘Democratic’ Lions about to Take Over?
By: Andreas Mehler
The ‘Lions of Teranga’, the Senegalese national football team, reached the quarter finals of the World Cup 2002, while the ‘Indomitable Lions’, Cameroon’s prestigious squad, did not survive the first round. Is this meaningful at all? Is soccer just sport? The utilisation of football by all political parties in the German election campaign or the impacts of victory and defeat from South Korea to Argentina tells us: no! And particularly in Africa, football can easily be related to politics. There are several dimensions to this linkage:
Prestige and legitimacy: The victory of the national team is a victory of the regime. Particularly autocratic regimes short of tangible successes try their best to channel support from sports to politics—Cameroon under Biya or Nigeria under Abacha are good examples. But the democratically elected president of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, is ‘surfing’ on the successes of ‘his’ soccer stars as well.
Political career: Sports, and football in particular, can promote political careers. Numerous politicians are involved in football clubs and associations, they invest in football in order to accelerate their political take-off.
National unity and ethnic diversity: The national soccer team is a symbol of a national unity that is rarely substantive otherwise. At the same time, the ethnic composition of the team remains a political issue. And the competition between football clubs at the national or local level is frequently taken as a dispute between ethnic groups or clans.
Correcting the negative public image of Africa: In football Africa gets the recognition that is commonly withheld because of real and imagined crises, corruption etc. Football is an African success story, that can be brought to market.
At the same time football offers indicators of the structural problems of the continent:
Corruption and clientelism: Football clubs and associations are places of clientelist pervasion, and of criminal acts. Scandals about embezzled money are very common in this environment.
The rare opportunities for upward social mobility, the difficult access to money, prestige and modernity: In the context of widespread poverty, football offers the underprivileged classes one of the few opportunities to climb the social ladder. Sincere or dubious brokers promise to open the doors to a different, better world.
Forced labour migration: The future El Dorado for most African players is located outside their country, and mainly in Europe. The ‘trans-nationality’ of star players, problems of integrating in the host society and resource transfers back home are highly accentuated in the football circus—while comparable to other forms of temporary migration.
Dependency: Poverty, inefficiency, and exploitation have made football clubs and associations dependent on massive inflows from FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) —with Blatter’s heavy money support programme called ‘Goal’ in mind—and private sponsoring. The success of African football internationally stands in blatant contrast to the state of stadiums, leagues, clubs and associations.
The rise of African football
The days are over when African teams at the World Cup were generally held in low esteem. With Cameroon’s victory over Argentina in the opening match of the World Cup in 1990 (1:0) and subsequent place in the quarter finals (ending with an undeserved 2:3 defeat against England) a new era began. Despite its early elimination in 2002 Cameroon remains the top African team on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings (at place 17 worldwide). After two African championships in a row (2000 and 2002, as well as 1984 and 1988), the Olympic gold medal (in 2000) and qualification for the World Cup in 1982, 1990, 1994, 1998 and now 2002 Cameroon was the undisputed Number 1 of African soccer before the tournament. Their early elimination (in group E) has put those successes in perspective. This time Senegal got to the quarter finals (losing against Turkey by a ‘golden goal’ 0:1; now ranking 31 internationally). With El Hadji Ousseynou Diouf Senegal fielded Africa’s player of the year 2001. Participation in the African Cup of Nations final (against Cameroon) has already confirmed the rise of the team to the African top. Qualification for Korea/Japan and the skills displayed by the team in the tournament have just reinforced this trend.
International successes of different African teams did not arrive by chance; they have roots. Individual players entered international football earlier than national teams. Meanwhile, every second European star ensemble has one or more Africans under contract (Oliseh in Borussia Dortmund, Kuffour in Bayern München, Foé in Olympique Lyon, Diouf was recently transferred from RC Lens to FC Liverpool, Geremi Ndjitap in Real Madrid, Mboma in AC Parma, Kanu and Lauren Etame in Arsenal London). But success stories can end abruptly: Ghana and Zambia once the star teams, have been relegated to the second rank (position 57 and 66 respectively), and even Nigeria have gone a long way from their heyday in the mid-1990s.
Sports and politics—some prospects
The short to medium term future belongs to national teams like Senegal and Cameroon, whose players earn their money in Europe, carry out their training under good conditions and evolve in first class competitions in regular leagues. And in the end those African football associations which respect transparent procedures will have most success. This is to the advantage of democracies in contrast to the classic neopatrimonial state—an advantage for Senegal in comparison to Cameroon. In the mid-term we can expect that a regular league competition will be established only in the more or less ‘functioning’ states where financially sane clubs can offer their players a monthly salary and maintain a basic infrastructure. This will be the case in one third of all countries at best. Partnerships between African and European clubs and external financial help, both increasingly at work in Africa, might be necessary in this perspective. However, they will have the intended effect only, if a) corruption and clientelism are tamed and b) the exploitative aspects (via brokerage of contracts for young talents, vote-buying in the FIFA-circus etc.) are not placed higher than the interests of the Africa partners. There are some noteworthy similarities with other asymmetric relations between Africa and Europe—e.g. in trade or development co-operation. Catch words like ‘brain drain’ on the one hand, ‘block votes’ in the UN-General Assembly on the other spring to mind. Africans here and there are not just objects of manipulation in such circumstances, but acting subjects. The responsibility is therefore shared. Politically, an emancipation of sports from small and big time politics would be desirable, the courage to refuse to be abused by politicians. Local media, professional editorial departments of independent newspapers and radio stations focusing on sports would be helpful. Unfortunately, here as well, the conditions are unfavourable in most countries.
