adminLOVEMORE DUBE in Durban, South Africa
THE 2013 Soccerex African Forum ended on Wednesday evening here on a high note with powerful presentations among them from three sports ministers who underscored the need for governments to fund sport.Ministers from Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia were in unison that there was need for government involvement in sport. They said the support comes through establishing sports councils to oversee the running of associations up to sponsoring senior national teams as sport plays an important role in society by uniting people.
An association, they said, was as strong as the formulated policies which need to be backed by good funding.
Speaking on Sport and Government, Nigeria’s Mallam Bolaji Abdullah said the national association and government will invariably clash from time to time if there is no shared vision.
“It’s got to be a shared vision, you have to be able to offend somebody at times for things to work. My partner in getting the job done is the federation (sports council). There is need for conversation with the office of the minister and as an administrator you need to be an astute politician to achieve,” said Abdullah.
The Nigerian minister said he was disappointed with the disappearance of most of Africa’s promising talent. He said many players did not stay long enough in the game to be able to live their dreams in the world of professional football despite showing lots of potential citing the example of players who played in a junior tournament with Lionel Messi and Obi Mikel in 2005 who have been lost by the game.
Abdullah said it was important among African governments to come up with management templates that could carry on even when one was out of office.
He said sport development should not been seen as the brainchild of an individual minister but a path followed by all who would follow years later.
Ghana’s minister Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah said his government supports the national teams, paying for travel, accommodation and allowances. He said this was because it’s a national sport that unifies the people.
He emphasised the need for a shared vision with the national associations.
“We have at times different and common objectives, we all agree that football should develop, we all want Ghana to qualify for the World Cup. To that end we have to come up with enabling legislature in the form of tax incentives so that the corporate sector can be involved,” said Afryie-Ankrah.
Like his Nigerian counterpart he is not happy that companies only wait for national teams to win tournaments and then fall over each other in the aftermath.
Zambian minister Chishimba Kambwili said his government had created an enabling environment through the sports council for both parties to work well.
Kambwili said whenever there were good soccer results at the copper mines, production tended to be very high. That he said had been proved through human resources research and as such soccer played a pivotal role in the lives of people besides unifying them.
He said his ministry would push for tax breaks for companies that sponsor sport and also introduce a sports levy.
“We will introduce a sports levy, soccer is a unifying factor among our people and we think a sports levy has to be introduced on beer, mobile phone networks and on cigarettes.
“We need to invest in sport in Africa and in Zambia government pays all expenses for the senior national team,” said Kambwili.
The two-day event ended yesterday with several soccer icons like John Barnes, Mamelodi Sundowns’ Refiloe Jane, Supersport’s Thomas Kwenaite, Safa president Danny Jordaan, South African Premiership chief executive officer Brand de Villiers, Jack Oguda of Kenya, and legend Lucas Radebe having presented papers on a variety of subjects.
Online Reporter