Not since World War II has the global sports industry faced such a crippling crisis, which is likely to cost billions of dollars in lost revenue and could yet see the permanent extinction of some teams and competitions.



The coronavirus pandemic that has spread across the world has the potential to change the face of sports forever, and Africa will not be spared, with one administrator suggesting the outbreak could set their game back 20 years.



The severity of the impact will be determined by how long it takes for society to live alongside the pandemic, but even if that were to happen in June, there has already been significant damage done.



Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Ahmad Ahmad has tried to provide a positive outlook, but knows the complexity of the situation on the continent is dire.



None of the 54 domestic leagues in Africa was still running in May, as Burundi was the last to close up shop the month before, but just when cross-border competitions such as the lucrative CAF Champions League, and qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup, can resume, is anybody’s guess given travel restrictions are likely to be in place for some time, and vary from country to country.



“CAF is already focused on the conditions for relaunching our competitions and our events,” Ahmad said in comments supplied to FORBES AFRICA.



“Never has a crisis of such great magnitude crossed the world, never has world sport decreed so many postponements of its programs and never has such a tsunami struck the most basic sporting practice.



“We are now condemned to rebuild the basics, or at least to reinforce them, to energize them so that at the time of recovery, we will be the best structured and best disposed to conquer or re-conquer, the dry territories of sport and football.



It is Ahmad’s way of saying that any thought of returning to pre-coronavirus levels of engagement and sponsorship are fanciful in the short-term, or perhaps even medium-term.



His suggestion of having to “rebuild the basics” is a key admission and will be the same for many sports that face a sponsorship vacuum from some of the world’s leading brands.



When airlines, major sponsors of African sport, have been laying off staff and cut their schedules to next to nothing, can they justify pumping millions of dollars into sport?



The same for car manufactures, loss-making banks and oil companies hit by the drop in the price of crude.



The health conditions to allow play for many sports in Africa may return this year, but the question is whether there will be the financial support vital to being able to play the game.



Selwyn Nathan, commissioner of South Africa’s Sunshine Tour and a leading expert on global golf, suggests the pandemic may return the sport to the year 2000 in terms of financial capabilities.



“It could be like starting a business all over again, you can’t have an attitude that people [sponsors] will just come back,” Nathan says.



“It’s not something unique to Africa, or sport anywhere in the world, but we are going to have to change the way we do things.



“Players will have to accept that they are not going to be playing for the same money, and organizers must accept they will have to ask for less [money] and possibly do more just to retain sponsors.



“It is going to fundamentally change the way we operate and we have to adapt to that.”



Winners in some co-sanctioned Sunshine Tour and European Tour golf events can earn upwards of $1.5-million per tournament, but Nathan believes those numbers will be fanciful for the foreseeable future and it is likely to be a fraction of that.



The pandemic could be the death knell for ailing Super Rugby, the southern hemisphere club championship that has been hanging on for dear life, as it was, due to dwindling interest and its format that sees players criss-cross the globe between Argentina, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Japan.



In the case of world champion Springboks, that could actually work in their favor and see them looking north to Europe for club and country competitions, where the TV revenues are greater and load on players less, according to respected Stormers coach John Dobson.



“I believe there will be a restructuring of the game and that could be at Super Rugby’s expense,” Dobson says. “There could be stronger focus on domestic competitions with less travel and more tailored for television, because ultimately, that is where you get the revenue to run the game.



“It’s critical you have a product that is appealing to rugby fans, and after this period, maybe that will rather involve South African teams playing in the [European] Heineken Cup. I don’t know, but something has to change.”



Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard, who is chairman of the APO Group, a communication and business consultancy in Africa, says he has seen first-hand the toll the virus has taken on sports federations almost across the board.



“I think, unfortunately, it will have a devastating effect for many. First of all, athletes cannot train properly and when you are at the level of international competition, just a few percentage points off can compromise your body,” he says.



“Added to that, there is no competition and the longer this goes on, the longer it will take for athletes to return to peak performances, so in the near term, you will have a poorer product for television and sponsors.”



Pompigne-Mognard says cross-border competitions are vital in Africa and it is in these multi-national tournaments where many federations across different sports make most of their revenue.



“Each African nation is unlikely to return to full health at the same time, so, for example, the Basketball Africa League, which involves 12 teams from across the continent has to be put on hold until travel is possible.



“It will go ahead, but the question is when and what are the financial consequences of this? It is something that we cannot quantify now, so we live in this state of uncertainty and that is not good for anybody, sport or business.”



The postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games to 2021 has brought much relief for many athletes, who had seen their training regimes brought to a halt, or at best conducted in the confines of their own home.



Olympic gold medalist swimmer Chad le Clos had had to make do with what he has at home while in lockdown in South Africa, one of thousands of elite athletes from across Africa in similar situations.



“It is what it is and I am happy with the decision (to move the Olympics) that has been made,” Le Clos says. “I have a small pool at home, so I attach a cord that allows me to stay stationary as I swim.”



&nbsp;“We cannot afford to take a break, even in lockdown. You cannot let yourself lose the months and months of work that you have put into your body.



“I don’t know where or when I will compete again, but you have to stay positive. You have to hope for the best, that is all we can do.”



-Nick Said

Stadium background with a green grass pitch in the daytime

All Home And No Play: Not Since World War II Has The Global Sports Industry Faced Such A Crippling Crisis

It is a cold Saturday morning in Soweto, a township in south west Johannesburg. A short drive from where the World Cup final was played at Soccer City, three boys kick a soccer ball on its last life on a netball court in what used to be a fan park for the football tournament in South Africa in 2010. When World Cup fever grasped the country, these lads and hundreds of soccer fans, dressed in layers of clothes, gathered in this park to watch the games on a big public screen. The boys were all 10 years old then; they remember the camaraderie and piercing noise of the vuvuzelas.
But last year the screen was removed, leaving a gaping hole. A painting of a soccer ball on a lamppost is the only sign that the World Cup was once here.
It is exactly five years after the tournament came to Africa for the first time. It was the event that brought hope to the country, with promises to develop the sport and give business to local hospitality spots. People renovated their homes and let them out to tourists. But few are still in business. The promise of sustainable post World Cup business seems to have gone to the dogs. Several world class stadiums were built and upgraded to the tune of $1.1 billion. But today the majority of those stadiums are white elephants.
There was controversy around the tender processes to build these stadiums. Whistle blowers were murdered and several people went on trial. One prominent figure that was tried was Bobby Motaung, a Kaizer Chiefs manager and son of the club’s founder Kaizer Motaung. He was implicated in a tender saga for building the Mbombela Stadium, in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga province. Due to a lack of evidence, the case against Motaung was dropped in 2013.
A few weeks before the 5th anniversary of the World Cup in South Africa, it emerged that the country had paid $10 million to secure votes to win the bid for the event. This was never declared in public until the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indictment emerged alleging the money was a bribe to Jack Warner, the former Fifa vice president. It also identifies two South Africans as “co-conspirators” but their names are withheld. The South African government denies there was a bribe. According to a letter written on March 4, 2008, by Local Organising Committee president, Molefi Oliphant, the money paid was a donation to the Diaspora Legacy Programme in the Caribbean.
A few days ahead of the FIFA annual meeting in Zurich on May 28, Swiss police arrested Warner and six other officials in the five-star Baur au Lac hotel. By the end of May, 14 people involved with Fifa were indicted in connection with wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering.
“[The South African Football Association] requests that the Diaspora Legacy Programme be administered and implemented directly by the president of Concacaf who shall act as a fiduciary of the fund,” it reads.
Warner, who was the president of Concacaf, and his co-accused are implicated in Fifa bribes that include awarding the World Cups in France in 1998 and South Africa in 2010. Chuck Blazer, a former Fifa official from the United States (US), has admitted to his involvement in these bribes after being implicated in the FBI investigation.
“How Warner took a $10-million bribe from South Africa in exchange for his vote is laid bare in six pages of a 164-page indictment made public in the US following the arrest of Fifa executives ahead of the corruption trial of the century,” says Ray Hartley, Editor At Large at the Times Media Group.
The South African Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation has called for the Minister of Sports and Recreation, Fikile Mbalula, to summon the former members of the Local Organising Committee before parliament.
“The allegations contained in the indictment are yet to be proven in a court of law. But, the evidence is mounting that South Africa bribed its way to hosting the World Cup,”
says Hartley.
He also says the former organizing committee members are not accountable to parliament, but to the minister.
“It is a bit paranoid to block them from publicly speaking about the allegations,” he says.
Dominic Chimhavi, the South African Football Association director of communications, says the allegations that South Africa paid a bribe to Warner are unfounded.
“They are baseless and untested and we request proof from anyone who has evidence to the contrary to come forward. Our bid campaign was run, by among others, late president Nelson Mandela and former President Thabo Mbeki and several government ministers, who are men of integrity,” says Chimhavi.
So, it appears the 2010 World Cup has vanished from Soweto but it is likely to be in the headlines and the FBI investigation for years to come.

The FBI Tackles Fifa

Arise O Compatriots! Nigeria’s call obey…” – The well-worn opening phrase of the Nigerian national anthem has echoed from school halls and stadiums.
Firm hand against chest, Nigerians, home and abroad, declare a melodic oath when the occasion permits but how many believe in this allegiance they swear by today?
As Nigeria marks its 54th anniversary, I cast my mind back to when this day simply meant another public holiday and a few headlines in the papers.
Colorful parades and rallies fill the streets of Lagos as a carnival of enthusiastic youth and government convoys paint the town green. Speech after speech, march after march, millions of countrymen sharing momentous camaraderie – one all seemed to take pride in, yet understood so little about.
Beyond the festivities – its meaning still eluded me. Yes, we gained partial independence from Britain in 1960, with an official declaration of independence signed in 1963, but what did Nigeria’s independence really mean? When I looked around, there were large infrastructural bottlenecks, a defective educational system, gross unemployment, maladministration in key structures and a catalogue of unkept promises for a brighter Nigeria. What were we really independent of?
Many years away from home and I began to appreciate the wealth of my country; its wealth of talent. I saw Nigerians in the diaspora in high-powered roles, giving back wholeheartedly to societies that have given them a greener pasture, a new home and a chance to blossom. They were contributing to its enrichment and sustainability while a severe brain drain grew at home.
Each visit home was bittersweet. I had to face the reality that situations had merely altered marginally. While I applaud the racing pulse of today’s Nigeria and celebrate the diverse talent and insatiable drive that this country embodies, the enabling environment remains elusive.
In spite of its challenges, Nigeria has taken mammoth strides. The tide turns as entrepreneurial giants emerge from the rubble and bottlenecks, positioning the country at the forefront of investment and more recently overtaking South Africa as the largest economy in Africa. This inspires new debates; is it an ornamental or functional title? While this has been met with mixed reaction, there have also been some valid causes for celebration. We should nod to how far we have come while locking hands with harsh reminders of how much further we still have to go.
Today, it is refreshing to see an army of Nigerians return to the country, propelled by a daring mind shift, fresh ideas and a hunger to contribute to its growth, just as it’s heart-rending to see toddlers tap at my window while driving through the streets of Lagos, begging for some change when they should be in the classroom.
It is worth a toast to see more indigenous companies take the reins in areas that had once only been entrusted in the hands of expatriates, just as it is undeniably evident that more multinationals are investing in Nigeria as a fertile ground for returns.
As I celebrate Nigeria’s independence, I celebrate in the hope of brighter future, investment and empowerment of its youth. A future with a bigger appetite to harness our bountiful natural resources and build infrastructure. I dream of a Nigeria that invests in its human capital, shatters the glass ceiling in the boardrooms and prides itself in unity. A country that respects and guards the fundamental human rights of the girl and boy child and frowns upon ethno-religious crisis. A Nigeria that attracts all back home and rewards their enthusiasm and skill accordingly.
I might be asking for too much but ultimately, I want a Nigeria whose national anthem I can sing believingly.

Tag: Stadiums

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

All Home And No Play: Not Since World War II Has The Global Sports Industry Faced Such A Crippling Crisis

The FBI Tackles Fifa

What Are We Really Independent Of?