Why is east African football behind the rest of the continent?

I just said people were missing something, not that track was the #1 and ONLY reason.

Whether or not more little kids in Kenya wear Cristiano Ronaldo shirts than Sammy Kitwara ones speaks to the general popularity of football and the marketing machines behind big European teams. But the development and recruitment of talented young athletes in East Africa is centered around track more than football.

 

Reading Svend Frandsen's article on this very topic and thought of this thread...

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=736790&sec=global&root=global&cc=4716

 

You got the point but.. should they go to the west or other parts of Africa
to be selected as heroes (football players)?

As what Oranje said. I think, Africa's number one sport is football. I'm just wondering if maybe, officials in East Africa don't promote football much like
in other parts (west, south, etc) of Africa. As a result, players will not have
enough exposure and can't further develop their playing skills.

 

As already stated, in some country's, not all. Kenya may be corrupted, but Kenya has a huge sub continental population as well and they have little interest in football, mainly cricket. They also favour athletic type sports like long distance running. The southern East African countries definitely have a preference for other sports hence their love for cricket and rugby. Probably because of the white inhabitants but the preference is there nonetheless.

 

Popularity of football should not play a major factor in the footballing competence of countries(otherwise Japan, Australia, USA, would not be world cup mainstays).And most countries have football as the main sport but the national team remains weak. In East Africa, corruption of authorities and funding play a much bigger role there.

 

Australia is hardly a world cup mainstay. They qualified two times in a row. The USA and Japan are mainstays because of the weakness in depth in the given federations.

 

Just because Baseball is the most popular sport in Japan doesn't mean that footy isn't popular. The J-League is strong and well supported.

 

The reasons behind the lagging development of East African football compared with its West African counterparts are rooted in the history of African football and extremely complex. North Africa benefited early on from their proximity to Europe, in addition both the North and West were also supported by ex-colonial masters (notably France) who saw an opportunity to further their own national teams success by recruiting the strong, talented and athletic African footballer (France and Portugal have benefited most from this in recent times) offering them duel citizenship and a "better life" in Europe. Then came the clubs, Ajax's support in South Africa, Feyenoord in Ghana, Beveren in Ivory Coast, PSG in Burkina Faso... the list goes on. So history has not helped East Africa as other regions have stolen the spotlight.

With more support and money flowing into North and West African football, the game undoubtedly thrived in the region. East Africa on the other hand has never been given the same amount of support and financial backing. Inept management from national associations in East Africa is a massive problem, but they are institutions build on unstable - or non existent - foundations.

Another way at looking for answers to the question is to view football purely as a business. Specifically the basic model of "supply and demand".

The demand from European clubs has always been for a West African or North African. As mentioned previously, the French have had a massive hand in this; players from Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco etc., were all offered duel citizenship and the opportunity - if talented enough - to play in Europe. This gave the players involved, and more importantly the countries, a platform to showcase the talents. When those players succeeded other European clubs wanted a slice of the pie and searched those area's looking for a similar player to someone like Larbi Ben Barek etc.,. So they invested in those countries looking for the next Larbi, other players were found, developed, impressed on the European stage... and the cycle continued.

Whilst all of this was going on in ex-French West Africa the East region just sat there, without the infrastructure, without and finance and more importantly without the demand.

All of this negativity aside, mark my words... East African football is on the up. The Kenyan Premier League is a shining light (in terms of domestic football) in the region, with two stable years of growth and improving standards on the pitch (even if the administrative bodies in the country and full of cretins), the Ugandan and Tanzania leagues are beginning to stabilise thanks in part to investment from South African TV giant SuperSport (who have also been behind the growth of the Kenyan league over the past few years). Other places like Rwanda, Somalia and Sudan have improving grassroots programs, helped by FIFA's goal project.

The administrative issues that blight the region and effect most of African football, will slow down progress, but it will not stop it.

One of the best things to happen to Kenya, and the region, recently was McDonald Mariga's move to Inter and recent appearance in the Champions League against Chelsea. He's a superb midfielder and one I've raved about on this forum for a number of years. But Macca has more than just Kenyan fans praying for his continued success, the region will also be following his development closely. Simply put, if he succeeds at Inter then Europe will begin to demand East African footballers.

For those of you interested in Kenyan football specifically, have you heard of Kevin Omondi? Very talented striker for Gor Mahia, I saw him play against Mathare United earlier in the month and he's definitely one to watch out for.

 

For those interested in Kenyan football, NTV have done a lovely five minute feature on the "glory years" of Kenyan football. Some great pictures, stories and music, well worth a look: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKCSXaem7OI&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube- Football glory years[/ame]

 

Aren't you a Ghana fan? You could say the same thing about them. In fact in 6 attempts they've failed to beat Australia. It's all well and good to do the smack and all......

 

Uh... yes they did beat Australia.

Depth in Africa is much larger than in Asia or CONCACAF. There are at least 10 teams on Australia's level or higher.

 

The simple answer is lack of investment, coupled with so few players playing in Europe. Look at the number of West, Central and South African countries. Those in North Africa have the money and infrastructure to enable strong domestic leagues of there own. Unfortunately money is a big factor in football, and the lack of investment in East African football is the main reason it is so far behind the reat of the continent.