THE GROWING COMMERCIALISATION OF AFRICAN FOOTBALL

Opportunities and Challenges

The big tournament is almost here and there are massive expectations all over the continent and beyond. This tournament will be the biggest in terms of international interest and coverage. Over 2bn global audience is expected to tune in to watch the CAN 2008. This brings with it an opportunity for commercial exploitation of this great tournament. First the tournament has a title sponsor in MTN, the pan African telecom giant which is pumping a lot of money into the game. CAF has also secured a TV deal with TV5 worth hundreds of millions Euros. In addition there are other major sponsors putting significant funds into the tournament. The local organizing committee has also taken steps to cash in on the commercial side of the tournament. They have licensed merchandise and paraphernalia rights to corporate entities while strictly enforcing any breaches of such licenses.
These major commercial developments in as much as it helps the game to grow is also posing some major challenges to FA’s who desire to see mass participation from ordinary fan in the game. For starters the TV rights issues have threatened to exclude many poor Africans from enjoy African football at its very best. TV5 insist on selling the rights at very high cost and this has excluded many national broadcasters from subscribing. The TV networks in Nigeria Africa biggest TV audience have complained about the price tag of 4 million Euros being demanded by TV5 and have expressed their inability to afford. This problem is also being experienced by other countries on the continent.