Local companies can raise standards of Rwandan football

Dr Joseph Kamugisha Recently, the Minister of Sports and Culture Joseph Habineza visited Kimisagara Youth Sports Centre where he officiated at an event at which Hotel Milles des Collines offered support towards youth football. Hotel des Milles Collines, whose management was recently taken over by global brand Kempinski, provided 170 new footballs to young people at the Kimisagara centre as part of their social responsibility to support and promote youth football development. As the minister said during the event, local companies can play a big role in football development as part of their responsibility. Development is achieved communally and not individually though it’s starts from the smallest unit as an individual. Investing in youth football is the only way to make our local game attractive and possibly raise the standards of the game in our country. I think everyone can play a role to make our football game attractive and this can only be achieved if we give young people chance and time to play of course with the requisite infrastructure. Nurturing this young talent will inevitably give us the much-needed breed of young players that whose performance will end up bringing back people to stadiums. People need to divert their minds from European football watched on televisions every weekend and focus on our local game. You can only know what goes around in Rwandan football if you attend football league matches. The sports ministry together with the football federation have massive task at hand to revise means of developing and promoting the best players locally. The only way to overcome brain drain in sport is to increase on investments, expertise and marketing strategy of the game. In the past and even presently, African leagues have suffered unrelenting migration of elite talent to Europe, and this leaves African soccer leagues in unprecedented proportions. The loss of talent has lowered the standard of the game in our local soccer leagues with attendance, gate receipts and media interest all taking a plunge. Leagues that flourished in the past have been nearly decimated by the constant drain of talent, with African stars being recruited at a younger age than ever before. While the migration has improved the quality of play of European football clubs, the consequences are now proving grave for African soccer leagues and even national teams. The stadiums that used to be filled with passionate local fans are featuring empty stands with most of the regular fans sitting at home watching European leagues on television. The lure of European football has remained extremely enticing for African players and many perceive making it in Europe as one of the rare opportunities to escape the harsh economic realities of life back home. The consequences of the massive influx of African players to Europe have been detrimental to our local football. African leagues have been left colourless and less competitive because talented players as young as 15 years of age are lured to Europe for professional football where they earn big sums of money. It would be very colorful to watch the likes of Samuel Eto’o, Yaya Toure, and Didier Drogba among a host of Europe-based African stars on the African soil. Low football standards have resulted in most African leagues being weak and less attractive to sponsors. Taking an example of the 1970s and 80s when players like Roger Milla (Cameroon) and Stephen Keshi (Nigeria) played for their home clubs, the leagues in Africa were very competitive and exciting. Due to the poor state of the game in the continent today, the migration of talent is depriving the local football leagues for quality players who can excite and catch the attention of the local soccer fans. Based on the current situation, African football associations should market their leagues and run them equally professional to keep the players on home soil. Classical examples of the countries whose leagues have suffered most because of this massive influx include Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Ghana, among others. However, credit should be given to South Africa and Egypt as countries that have kept faith with their football esteem in terms of investment, expertise and marketing. The stagnation of African football is partly due to lack of exposure and poor infrastructure.