Thesis: Contribution of sports in Africa's development - Earwin Adany

THESIS: HOW SPORTS CAN
CONTRIBUTE TO AFRICA’S
DEVELOPMENT
2019-2020
INSEEC MSC2: COMMERCIAL ENGENEERING AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Earwin ADANY

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INTRODUCTION:
As passionate of sports and interested in Africa’s development I wanted to combine both
subjects in this thesis.
To give you impacting numbers, while a winner of the Euro cup of football will win 27 million
euros (33 million dollars - annex (1)) the winner of the equivalent tournament in Africa (Africa
Cup of Nations or CAN) will win 4 million euros, which represents 6,75 times less.
We could understand this difference if football wasn’t cultural or even though, not mediatized
but it is not the case. In fact, following the article https://journals.openedition.org/com/5920
(March 19, 2020) the CAN created in 1957 has been watched 4,5 billions times (only in Africa)
if we cumulate the last events, while we have 1,216 billion people in Africa.
Moreover, sports have been participating in defining African territories, stopping territory wars
and colonization, and so, improving each state’s independency. Thus, we can remember that
during the antic Olympic Games we had an Olympic truce. Even if sports contributed to
Africa’s liberty, the impact on its development is still not the same as occidental continents.
We can still observe huge economic differences which can be related to several facts:
Since 1896, the Olympic flame has never burned in Africa’s 54 countries even if most of them
have been candidates. This still shows an inequality. The reasons are:
- The lack of funds as explained by Wladimir Andreff (sports economist) in
http://www.slateafrique.com/92607/les-jo-en-afrique-cest-pour-quand (March 19,
2020): “The Budget for the Olympic Games is larger than the gross domestic product
(GDP) of dozens of sub-Saharan African countries. [...] Burundi's GDP (1.8 billion
euros) is smaller than the London Games budget (about 12 billion euros). In this
country, the Olympics would be more expensive than in the English capital, because
infrastructure would have to be built or renovated (metro, airport...)”.
- Lack of infrastructures (transports, stadiums, maintenance, technology…)
- Lack of security in terms of people, brand competition…
Today, South Africa is the only African country able to organize the Olympic games.
We can also add that, it is part of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), three
of these countries (Brazil, China and Russia) have already organized a word cup or Olympic
game.
This is certainly why they are the only host African country that have organized the Football
world cup (2010) since 1930. Furthermore, the colonial history of this country permitted it to
benefit of infrastructures and an economy reliable to occidental countries. In fact, “thanks to”

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the Apartheid organized by the British and Dutch, among others, the country had cities
dominated and limited to white-skinned people in order to develop a comparable economy to
Europe or United States. We can take the example of the Rugby world cup of 1995 in South
Africa, where there was already a stadium that could welcome more than 60,000 people.
Today, they have 8 stadiums around the country (Johannesburg, Rustenburg, Pretoria…)
capable to welcome between 40,000 and 94,000 person each.
Unfortunately, we have to consider that a huge event doesn’t always have the economic benefits
hoped, before, during and after. Consequences can be dramatic because of a lack of managerial
organization as it happened in 2014 in Brazil for the world cup. If the investment is supposed
to generate new infrastructures for a better quality of life, create employment, develop tourism,
it can also:
- Create problems of social insecurity. In Brazil, following the study of the institute
Datafolha, only 48% of the population was favorable for the organization of the world
cup after the country’s designation. In cause, the feeling that the government prioritized
construction of infrastructures (airports and stadiums) rather than building social plans
(hospitals, schools, houses…). Moreover, the number of robberies increased of 43% in
the first semester of 2014 compared to the past year. We could also observe fatal
accidents (8 deaths) on construction sites.
- Problems of managerial organization in construction: the country was supposed to finish
their 12 stadiums in December 2013 but two of them weren’t finished at the launching
of the cup; renovation of airports were late and new metros were supposed to be created
in order to facilitate transports, but they have been cancelled.
- These problems are the causes of a non-respected budget: If Brazil invested 8 billion
euros to prepare this world cup, South Africa only invested 3,5 billion euros. This can
be explained by corruption, lack of organization, stadiums which costed three times
their price, etc.
Such consequences would be dramatic in African countries which are less developed and have
a less stable economy.
This situation reveals several factors of under-development of sport in Africa.
Indeed, these factors can be external (discrimination, power, mediatization…) or internal
(corruption, security, economy, lack of recognition…) and are symbolic of political, social and
cultural motivations.
But nothing is done neither for the countries, neither for the sportsmen to develop Africa. We
may also concentrate on the fact that sportsmen tend to go in developed countries rather than

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stay in their States. Of course, sport is a hope for young Africa to have a decent life. To give
you an idea, according to https://www.economie.gouv.fr/entreprises/chiffres-cles-marche-
sport-en-france (March 20, 2020), only in France, in 2019, sport generated 38,1 billion euros
while depending on https://www.entreprises.gouv.fr/files/files/directions_services/etudes-et-
statistiques/prospective/Industrie/2016-06-Pipame-Industries-sport.pdf (March 20, 2020) in
2007, in South Africa, which is the top 1 example in Africa, sport represented 2,47 billion euros
(more than 2% of its GDP).
Regarding the sportsmen who have a link with Africa (double-nationality, ancestors…), their
race to become an equivalent sportsman than an occidental is complicated.
In appearance, regarding France in the last football world cup of 2018, the polemic was that 10
African countries were represented by the blue jersey nation. So, even if they are not white
skinned, they are French. In this situation we can ask ourselves several things:
- Why didn’t they play for their other nationality or their ancestors’ nationality?
- Do they benefit of the same preferential system as everyone?
- Are they well-rounded?
Briefly, I will answer by saying that most of them are born in France. The double nationality is
a strange feeling as you know that you have always been leaving in France, but you also know
that you have another origin which represents your parents and/or grandparents. As, sports
facilitates more your well-being in France than in Africa, because the recipes are more
consequent, a part of the final decision of these players brings them to represent France. But
we mustn’t forget that it is a vicious circle for Africa because, at the end, talent brings medias
and then investors.
They may not all have the same preferential system depending on:
- Where they come from: if they are native of an occidental country or if they have been
living in Africa (expatriates).
- Their environment: if they are well followed, or not.
These interrogations are what lead me to a first interrogation that I will highlight with books,
newspapers, studies, interviews of professionals and concepts studied in my specialized master
(Commercial Engineering and Project Management):
“How to develop a talent program in Africa in order to have an impact on the continent’s
growth?”
This theme will be developed at first by an explanation of the situation in Africa regarding
sports, but also of the sportsmen and recruiters, and what it represents for them to
integrate/make integrate a foreign country’s sports federation.

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This part will be followed by the impact on their environment, the major people around their
activities, such as sponsors, governments, States, families, but also sports managers who must
be trustworthy.
After understanding these situations, I will be able to bring managerial recommendations of
what should be done, by states, the sportsmen but principally as a talent program manager.

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TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction: ........................................................................................................................ 1
I. Actual situation: a non-implication or a non-capacity of africa to develop its
sport’s added value? ............................................................................................................ 6
(A) The local major actors contribution................................................................... 6
The good examples: ....................................................................................................... 6
Repartition of benefits?.................................................................................................. 8
Corruption...................................................................................................................... 9
Muscle drain................................................................................................................. 10
Numbers....................................................................................................................... 12
(B) The african sportsmen and sportive agent’s power of decision......................... 14
The agents .................................................................................................................... 14
The players................................................................................................................... 16
II. Field study: What are the consequences of the lack of implication of the African
actors in sports on the continent’s development?........................................................... 21
(A) Local actors reduced contribution: A misunderstanding of the sports sector
impact or other priorities? ............................................................................................ 22
At an international level............................................................................................... 22
At a local level ............................................................................................................. 24
What is done?............................................................................................................... 25
Football in Senegal ...................................................................................................... 27
Basketball in Madagascar ............................................................................................ 31
Marathon in Kenya ...................................................................................................... 34
(B) Sportsmen and their agents suffering of their situation?................................... 36
Doping.......................................................................................................................... 37
“Give Back Behavior” ................................................................................................. 38
III. Managerial recommandations: Will a talent program be enough to raise
awareness of African actors? ............................................................................................ 41
A feminine talent program’s needs and consequences, observations of the
organisational and stategical management.................................................................. 41
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 45
Annex......................................................................................................................................... 0
Table of Annex ..................................................................................................................... 1
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................. 0
Executive Summary : Contribution of sports in Africa’s development .................................. 0

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I. ACTUAL SITUATION: A NON-IMPLICATION OR A NON-
CAPACITY OF AFRICA TO DEVELOP ITS SPORT’S ADDED
VALUE?
To develop this part and make it relevant, I will use several tools, such as, studies from
professional and dedicated institutions websites, books. These will authorize me to separate
contribution organizations and individuals. You will, see theories that have been developed
by countries themselves in a historical context, but also theories that have been made by other
actors in order to understand action that have been made, are made or should be made. These
theories will finally be proven by facts and numbers, in order to lead this thesis to a suitable
problematic.
(A)THE LOCAL MAJOR ACTORS CONTRIBUTION
THE GOOD EXAMPLES:
The most representative event in Africa is the CAN. It has been created in 1957, before the
Euro cup (1960). At its launching, only few States could participate (Soudan, Egypt and
Ethiopia), as the others didn’t have their independency yet. At its last event, won by Algeria,
the event reunited 24 States.
But what is Algeria’s history regarding soccer? We will understand that, not only sport is
engaged, but also several factors, particularly around its independency of 1962:
The FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) of Algeria contacted famous Algerian footballers like
Rachid Mekhloufi, in order to make them select the Algerian nation, quit the French
championship, where they were well paid rather than be in the French selection and to create
a reaction for the country, just before the Word cup of 1958 in Sweden.
In April 1958 during the war of Algeria, 9 bi-national footballers quitted France clandestinely
to join Algeria. They disputed around 80 matches around the world, in countries supporters of
independency. They have been greeted by Mao Zedong, Tito or the general Võ Nguyên Giáp
in Vietnam.
The idea was to popularize their party and to promote independency. As they knew football
could reunite the population, the different goals were:
- Political: take part in the Algerian revolution and independency
- Economic: Clubs became property of companies in 1977

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- Societal: implicate the population in their movement and make them take consciousness
of the engagement
- Legal: Law of 1977 that dissolved Algerian clubs and associated them to national
companies (e.g.: USM Alger became US Kahraba - electricity).
This history seems to be repeated indirectly with the president Bouteflika and the willingness
of the population to be freer culturally, socially, politically…
This example shows that African political parties can contribute and organize sports movement
for their own interests, the interest of their country, but also, that these interests exist. It also
shows that the population has its role, in order to go forward.
Moreover, companies can also be investors, as the USM Alger became US Kahraba in 1977.
For companies, having their name as the name of their club represents visibility.
In fact, sponsorship is a huge communication way to promote growth as the sponsor has
royalties on each product sold by its association.
To understand what lead to the actual situation we can also consider the History of South Africa
with Nelson Mandela, and a great representation of it in Clint Eastwood’s movie: Invictus -
2010.
Nelson Mandela, seen as a terrorist because he wanted to deliver his country/community from
Apartheid has been thrown in jail from 1964 to 1982. When he has been released, he has
realized a huge work to deliver South Africa in 1991. For that, he putted forward peace and
became president in 1994.
Unfortunately, ex-colonizers were afraid of losing their job, their superiority, basically, their
good position.
But Madiba was a leader. As he said: “to make peace with an enemy, you have to work with
that enemy, and that enemy becomes your partner” we can understand that his goal was to make
his country, a “rainbow nation”, a nation where everyone can work together, make disappear
fear, conflicts, resentment and start again from 0.
Once again, his best weapon was sport.
As rugby is the national sport in South Africa, with the well-known Springboks. His first
apparition against England was truly respectful. He saluted the whole stadium constituted of
white-skinned people (because they were the only one capable to buy a ticket) that booed him,
shook hands of the players majorly white-skinned (only one black-skinned player: Chester
Williams).
A sad fact to know is that the few black people were always supporting the opponents, because
for them, Springboks stayed synonym of apartheid.

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This match finished by a defeat, a bit less than a year before the world cup that was supposed
to happen in his country (1995).
But for him, “the greatest glory is not to never fall, but to rise with every fall”.
To continue on that way, he impeached the modification of name of Springboks and putted in
place the new flag and a new national anthem.
Of course, change is long. At his beginning, the country assisted to a rise of criminality, a
decrease of the money value, symbolic of security and economic problems.
He knew his country needed inspiration to exceed its limits, but he also knew that his objectives
could be reached in part thanks to rugby. Thus, bookmakers didn’t expect the Springboks to
pass quarterfinals, because they were in a bad position before the world cup. This is why he
invited the white skinned captain Francois Pienaar who was a great leader for his team as well.
During this meeting they had a great discussion about values, the role of sport and the impact
rugby would have if the country won the world cup.
After that, Francois Pienaar understood he had a role in his country’s transition. He then started
to show the example of work, made them sing the new national anthem “God bless Africa”
(which was the old song of black resistance), made them visit Madiba’s cell when he was in
jail (Robben Island), but also brought his team to a small village, where the majority of
inhabitants were black-skinned. The idea was to reconciliate them with the Springboks.
This partnership between the two leaders seemed to be successful, as South Africa beat a huge
rugby nation: The Wallabies (Australia), , in their world cup first match and the Western Samoa
in quarterfinals. Moreover, Chester Williams scored an essay at his come-back of injury.
The final, against the All-blacks (New-Zealand) was a Historic victory for South Africa, given
that, they beat a team after prolongation (15-12) which had established a record victory with
145 points against Japan.
The particular situation of South Africa shows that union is possible in Africa. Government can
also use the benefits of sports to prove that it can be a lever to a country’s development, by
putting forward solidarity, fighting spirit, in order to make disappear racism and segregation.
Important fact: the first black-skinned player to be captain of South Africa is Siya Kolisi in
2018, and this shows that change is appearing.
REPARTITION OF BENEFITS?
To come back on the CAN, we can obviously say that it is an African cup, but is it only
dedicated to Africa?

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We can ask this question because lots of the countries participating are ex-colonized countries.
First answer to the question is: during the last CAN 2019, in Egypt, only 11 selectors of national
teams out of 24 were from Africa.
We can also add that most of the players are evolving in European championships.
Thus, this cup can hardly find local sponsors as since 2017 and for 8 years, its sponsor is Total
(French gas company which sponsors all the major competitions of the continent: Champions
League of Africa, Confederation cup, Super cup…).
Besides foreign sponsorship, we can also consider the fact that the image rights are also foreign
belongings, as Canal+ in France or Radio France Internationale (RFI). In fact, Africans can
hardly capture net images and have to do with non-quality.
All these rights from foreign countries also means that it is them, who benefit of this/these
African cup(s) in terms of advertisement, visibility and benefits.
So, how did this situation arrive?
CORRUPTION
The major problem in Africa is corruption.
During this same CAN, Ahmad Ahmad, the president of the CAF (African Confederation of
Football which was the property of the French group Lagardère until 2019) has been arrested,
then released, for a survey of corruption and breach of trust. The president had signed a
sponsorship agreement of 312 000 euros with Puma for the provision of balls, t-shirts and other
sport accessories. He unilaterally canceled this contract to sign another contract of 1 050 000
euros with Tactical Steel, a French familial SME (Small and Medium Enterprise), delivering
Adidas materials. This decision was surprising as long as the contract was 3 times more
expensive than the previous one. His excuse was that he didn’t have the guarantee of being
delivered on time. We can add that, the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Tactical Steel,
Romuald Seillier, is the friend of the French attached of Ahmad Ahmad (Loïc Gerand).
The ex-financial director of the CAF affirms that he has found financial arrangements between
the CAF and Tactical Steel:
For him, Tactical Steel has inflated the bills of equipment in order to pay the difference on two
different accounts belonging to Tactical Steel, both of them were created after signature of
contract and with an order of 60 000 balls:
- The first one located at Seyne-sur-Mer (headquarter of Tactical Steel).
- The second one in Dubai.

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On the second account, the CAF transferred an amount of 738 760 euros which strangely
corresponds to the difference of amount between Puma and Tactical Steel, even if, officially,
this amount covers the shipping cost of balls to the 54 African countries.
This supposed corruption is also covered by travel expenses:
For Amr Fahmy, the previous general secretary of the CAF (who has been fired after his
declarations) considers that 54 000 dollars, to send 3 members of the CAF to supervise the
equipment distribution, for one week in Morocco is a bit too much, all the more, that it doesn’t
include transport, food and housing.
Also, a “report said that FIFA had remitted a total of $51 million to the African governing body
from 2015 to 2018 and that, since then, about $24 million of that amount had been disbursed
by African soccer officials. In reviewing 40 payments totaling $10 million, auditors found that
just five of the payments, adding up to $1.6 million, had sufficient documentation to confirm
what the money would be spent on. The rest lacked information that in some cases made it
impossible to identify the beneficiaries of the funds”.1
These kind of events shows us that, some of the organization’s leaders prefer acting for their
own interest and at short term rather than in the interest of their continent and in long term.
But we can also observe some long-term problems, in relation with the past of Africa, as if
Africa wanted to keep their dominated position…
The positive fact is that, as long as African cups will make come foreign investors, it will prove
the attractivity of the continent.
MUSCLE DRAIN
One of the major problems is, the non-possibility for foreign players to beneficiate of complete
contracts in developed countries (sometimes they didn’t even beneficiate of any contracts and
changed country to play football only with a tourism VISA) including at least formation. These
players that are not always major, if they are not successful in their new country, are released
and totally abandoned by the destination club that bought them.
The arrêt Bosman is: “a decision taken by the European Court of Justice December 15, 1995.
Following a dispute with his club at the time (FC Liège), which cancelled its transfer to another
team, Jean-Marc Bosman, referred the matter to the Court for violating the freedom of
movement of Community workers (Article 39 of the Treaty of Rome). The court agreed with
1
Tariq Panja, Audit Finds Suspicious Financial Dealings in African Soccer, New York, New York Times,
February 8th, 2020

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him and required UEFA to enforce this regulation. As a matter of time, every European club
can compose its team without restrictions related to nationality players.”2
This jurisprudence
has been amplified by the agreements of Malaja and Cotonou. These agreements have a text
saying that, players from 100 countries can be considered as players of the European Union.
In fact, these decisions facilitate European clubs to buy African players. This situation leads to
“muscle drain”. But what is this phenomenon?
Qualified of "slave trade" and "trafficking in human beings" by Evariste Tshimanga
Bakadiababu in “le commerce et la traite des footballers Africains et Sud-américains en
Europe” – 2001, it consists in recruiting young players in developing countries, without
necessarily making them sign contracts, but, by selling them a “European dream” regarding
football and major leagues. Thus, the players that are not surrounded of professionals will meet
precarity, lower salaries than European players, be alone and for most of them, be abandoned
if they don’t correspond to their new club’s expectations. They also have to quit their local
federation, their families and friends. As you may understand, the result is a come-back to
hidden colonization, by exploiting players in developed countries.
To reduce that, the FIFA, first tried to regulate transfers in 2001, in order to, protect minors
with: compensations of costs of formation and training of players and a mechanism of
solidarity.
Moreover, this regulation, contains a prohibition of transfer of players under the age of 18
except if:
- The player’s family quits the country for other reasons than football.
- In the EU, transfers are authorized if there is an engagement towards scholar formation
and football training.
- If the player’s country is near the border of the host country.
A compensation also has to be paid to the previous training club, for the costs of training, and
at each of the future transfers of the player. This compensation is paid at the proportion of the
formation made by each club up to the 23 years old of the player.
Unfortunately, this rule isn’t enough to avoid the black market. In fact, the black market is the
scourge of transfers. It permits to malicious agents and organizations to bypass compensations,
contracts and miscellaneous costs, by continuing to not pay formation and training costs, but
also to make dumping at the transfer prime, and for agents, to abuse in the percentage perceived
in the transfer or/and first salary of the player.
2
Wladimir Andreff, Une taxe contre la misère du football africain ? ; Afrique contemporaine, 2010

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This is why Wladimir Andreff (Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Observatory for the
Economics of Sport) wants to validate a tax Coubertobin. His inspiration came from:
- James Tobin, Nobel prize in economics in 1978 advocated to input a tax in international
foreign exchange transactions and to reduce capital movements in international
financial markets.
- Pierre de Coubertin (French historian and president of the international Olympic
committee from 1896 to 1925) wanted each country worldwide to participate to the
Olympic Games.
This tax should consist in:
1. Covering the costs of formation and training already paid by the Developing Country
(DC) for each foreign player.
2. This tax would be a negative incitation to transfer a DC player to another country, taking
into account that the player is younger at the date of his transfer.
3. It would slow down the “muscle drain” of DC to developed country.
4. These revenues to DC would authorize these countries to create a sports development
fund.
This fund, would help DC countries to build equipment and infrastructures, maintain them and
finally, to implement effective physical education school programs.
Of course, this tax should be regulated by a worldwide agency such as United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) or a dedicated new organization. This would avoid the
bargaining or corruption risks.
But this tax is only a suggestion and hasn’t been voted.
NUMBERS
The major part of foreign players from Africa comes from Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast
(Annex (3) and (4)). To give you an example of it, I will give you the numbers of Nigeria which
is the country who has the most expatriate players. Nigeria has 334 expatriates in 2020. They
are present in 65% of football associations around the world 64 out of 98 associations). 165 of
these players are playing for the European championship. 20 of them play in Norway (biggest
presence worldwide).
We can also see (annex (5) and (6)) that the number of foreign players in UEFA is constantly
rising. Between 2009 and 2019, we have assisted to a growth of 7,1% of expatriate players.
The top 3 leagues where foreign players are mostly present are:

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- 1 Division (Cyprus) with 66,8% of expatriate players.
- Primeira Liga (Portugal) with 63,6% of expatriate players.
- Süper Lig (Turkey – UEFA is different from European Union in terms of countries) with
62,4% of expatriate players.
These countries, as you can see have much more than half players coming from foreign
countries (of course, not all of these players are coming from Africa, but they still represent an
important part: as 14 of them in Portugal, 17 of them in Turkey are coming from Nigeria in
2020).
Additionally, club-formed players represent 8,7% to 27,4% of the players per club.
There is no correlation between the number of club-formed players and the number of
expatriates per league, but we can still easily understand that the tendency goes on recruiting
foreign players rather than forming them in their own club since their younger age.
While the curve increases for the number of expatriates in the UEFA (annex (5)), it decreased
from 23,2 to 17,2 (annex (8)) for the club-formed players between 2009 and 2019.
This management of clubs can be explained by a nature of cost, because, in fact, foreign players
are often coming from developing countries, which means, these players are less expensive
despite rules of FIFA. Thus, it represents a minimized risk and a potential Return On Investment
(ROI) if the player is sold.
If we make the same study towards the world, “without taking into account the supplementary
championships, the number of expatriates increased by 628 persons during last year (+5.0%).
This increase shows that the internationalization of the football players’ labor market is a well-
established process. Expatriates represent 21.4% of players taken into account.
The notion of expatriate defines players having grown up outside of the national association of
their employer club and having moved abroad for sporting reasons. This definition allows us to
isolate migrations directly linked to the practice of football. Indeed, players of foreign origin
having grown up in the association of their employer club are not considered as expatriates.”3
To complete these statistics, we can consider the fact that UEFA is the association reuniting the
most expatriates with 9313 foreign players and the CAF, penultimate with 353 expatriates.
With no surprise, we can also observe that there is only one country of Africa present on the
top 50 countries importing players (annex (10)). Considered as a developed country, it is South
Africa. Its infrastructures, federation, economy and culture authorize the country to be part of
this list.
3
Drs Raffaele Poli, Loïc Ravenel and Roger Besson, World football expatriates: global study 2019, Switzerland,
CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report n°45 - May 2019

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(B) THE AFRICAN SPORTSMEN AND SPORTIVE AGENT’S POWER OF
DECISION
As sportsmen and agents are the last link in the chain, they may be the most exploited.
THE AGENTS
How to become agent and what is the role?
In terms of formation, the official roads to become agent are to pass a bachelor, license or
master in sport.
Otherwise, an agent, to pass the examination, given by the federation of sport he/she wants to
exercise in, still has to have an equivalent of any license.
There is also a technical test around the sport rules of the sport you want to be agent in.
According to https://www.cidj.com/metiers/agent-agente-de-joueur (April 6th ,2020), each
year in France, only for football, there are 400 to 500 applications with a success rate of 10%
to 20%.
The examination delivered by the federation contains juridical, and rights of sports knowledges.
Regarding the role of the agent: he/she is the mediator between the sportsmen and the club.
This work is defined by the Sport’s Code:
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCode.do?cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006071318 (April 6th
,2020).
He/she is a physical person who furnishes his/her expertise in taxation, sport, marketing, law,
management, etc. against a remuneration.
Having contacts helps a lot to be agent, but they still need to have good communication and
negotiations skills.
The revenues are a commission on their players salary, contracts or transfers. In France, these
commissions are limited to 10% maximum for the players, while in other countries, this limit
doesn’t exist. Knowing that, it would be interesting to be agent in other countries.
An unbelievable career of African agent would be the one of Mababa “Pape” Diouf (December
18th, 1951 – March 31st, 2020). Born in Senegal, he arrived in Marseille, France and started
his career as a journalist in the 70s. In 1989, under the guardianship of Joseph-Antoine Bell and
Basile Boli he became a sportive agent. His priority was to facilitate the formation of African
players. For that, he wasn’t expecting any written contract but moral engagements with his
players. During his career, more than 70 players will give him their trust (Marcel Desailly,

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William Gallas, Didier Drogba…). In 2005, his hard work will be recognized by his club of
heart: Olympique de Marseille (OM), where he will become president thanks to Robert-Louis
Dreyfus (he became the first black skinned president of a European club). He finally quitted the
OM in 2009 after 3 qualifications in Champions League (most prestigious club cup) and 2 finals
of French cup.
But, is such a career possible for every African agent? Not so sure, and alternatives are easily
found, and these ones are not necessarily positive.
Often, sportive agents are shadow workers. This means that they are able to dissimulate several
facts and act immorally.
These acts are not always denounced as it is profitable for the agents, the clubs but also because
the players, whom, with a dream at the beginning, are abandoned at the end and have already
enough to do with the situation of being alone in a foreign country, with no money,
unemployment…
In fact, networks can be and are constituted. Because of that, agents can be working for clubs
and themselves, at the expense of the player.
To make that possible, they can be secret agents (they won’t appear on the contract), double
agents (working for the club and the player) …
This is why, since 2015, the FIFA is not talking anymore of agent but of intermediaries in
French. Because agent looks too much like argent and the federation believed this was unmoral.
Following the study of (https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/151216/les-pires-
coups-tordus-des-agents-de-joueurs?onglet=full – April 6th 2020), the FIFA estimates at 368
million dollars in 2016, the fees given by clubs to intermediaries, only in Europe. It represents
34,2% more than 2015.
Moreover, since 2013, the global fees exceed 1 billion dollars.
As told before, these fees are limited to 10% in France, but the FIFA has decided that each
country, each federation, could decide of their own rules regarding intermediaries. According
to: https://www.lesechos.fr/2018/06/dumitrascu-le-mysterieux-agent-le-plus-puissant-du-
monde-1020452 – April 6th 2020, the average fees of the intermediaries was of 12,6% in
Europe, while the transfer market generated 5,1 billion euros in 2019.
This important fact implies that rules are not the same everywhere and can be more or less strict
and bypassable. Here are several examples (annex (11)):
- Percentage at the resale of a player: supposed to be prohibited, this measure has been
bypassed by Mino Raiola (Paul Pogba’s intermediary) who won 27 million dollars when
Paul Pogba has been transferred by the Juventus of Turin to Manchester United, added

16
to the 10 million dollars that have been offered to the intermediary while the player was
playing at the Juventus and 10 more million dollars given by Manchester United.
- “David Manasseh: Gareth Bale was transferred from Tottenham to Real Madrid for 101
million euros. The amount had remained secret: Ronaldo, who had cost the club “only”
94 million, should not be offended. The agent, on the other hand, took in 16.37 million
euros, as it can be seen in a document of September 2, 2013, which is not even the size
of a car rental contract.”4
- “When Hulk left FC Porto for Zenith St. Petersburg in exchange for 55 million euros,
the agent Constantin Panagopoulos received 13 million euros after taxes in three times,
or 28% commission.”5
Moreover, sanctions are not comparable with what non-certified intermediaries can lose. The
risk is only a fine, going up to 15000 euros. This fine is rarely applied, and non-licensed
intermediaries can also work in collaboration with certified ones and borrow their names.
(Annex (12), sample of powerful agents).
In basketball, this system of agents has been installed in 2007 by the FIBA. We are talking of
the “FIBA Agent licensing system”.
“Today, a total of 10’518 players are listed on www.fiba.basketball/agents which highlights the
importance of players’ agents and the need for a proper framework to regulate their activities
thus ensuring a smooth processing of international transfers and the compliance with FIBA’s
Internal Regulations and ethical standards.”6
For information, in 2018, the FIBA had 546 officially certified agents, which was the highest
rate since the creation of licensing.
THE PLAYERS
To start, it is important to identify the different type of sportsmen we are talking about.
Indeed, I will mainly talk about expatriates.
Expatriates are native African sportsmen leaving in a foreign country. In this thesis, as you may
have understood, the goal is to understand why these players are quitting the African continent
for a developed country, in order to live from the sport, they excel in.
4
Michaël Hajdenberg, Donatien Huet, Yann Philippin, Michel Henry, Les pires coups tordus des agents de
joueurs, France - December 16th 2016
5
Idem
6
CIES, International basketball migration report 2018, Switzerland - 2018

17
But, as they are the last part of the chain and they also have a lack of knowledge about the
global organization, making good decisions is hard for them.
In fact, we can’t isolate the worst case of what can happen to a great part of these sportsmen,
desiring to have the life they could hardly have, if they stayed in Africa.
https://issafrica.org/fr/iss-today/les-jeunes-footballeurs-dafrique-pris-dans-un-reseau-de-
criminalite-et-dabus (April 7th, 2020) explains it well:
As they want to follow the example of the most successful sportsmen of their continent (Didier
Drogba – football, Bismack Biyombo – basketball, Eliud Kipchoge – marathon) they easily
trust “agents” who, often are not certified to join Europe, which is now saturated because of a
very high level. The new tendency is to join Asia because it can be a springboard to then join a
well-known championship.
Following a report of the French NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) Foot Solidaire,
15000 young players are quitting the continent, and consequently, exposed to organized crime
and exploitation from unscrupulous agents. These same agents are the ones who are making
them dream of a new life.
Thus, they negotiate with the families and the players to make them think that the sportsman
will be able to join a club (that often doesn’t exist). In exchange, the family has to:
- Pay the agent (between 3000 dollars and 10000 dollars),
- Start the proceedings of passport (not always legal, moreover, corrupted embassies can
also modify the age and identity of the players)
- Pay the plane ticket (often, it is a one-way ticket).
In certain cases, even in Asia, there is too many expatriates in comparison with the number of
disponible positions. This can be so problematic that in some countries, they have imposed
quotas of foreign players. This situation works with Cambodia as Julie Masis explains it in her
article (https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0630/For-some-African-
soccer-players-road-to-World-Cup-starts-in-Cambodia - April 7th, 2020).
The consequence is that players are under-paid, not paid or abandoned. But, in a great situation,
players can make an affordable wage, which is enough for them to send money back to their
families in Africa.
In most of the cases, this can be a tragedy for the families, because initially they thought the
young player would be able to give the money back to them in short term. But in reality, as the
sportsmen don’t succeed, the families who gave their whole economies are not able to
reimburse the debt or pay they scholarship of the over children neither.

18
This kind of story can work for collective sports such as football, basketball or rugby where
competition is tough in developed countries.
But if we take the example of an individual sport, such as marathon, where the most famous
sportsmen stay African since the 80s, (example of Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco…) we can ask
ourselves if the situation remains the same, because they have a competitive advantage.
At first, what is this advantage? People often believe that it is a “natural gift”. This explanation
has no scientific explanation, this is why I am going to develop this argumentation with the
help of the book “Pourquoi les coureurs à pied africains sont-ils plus performants ? Pour une
explication sociologique” written by Manuel Schotté.
The first explanation would be that runners from North and East Africa are dominating in the
middle/long-distance running because of their environment. Thus, they are evolving in regions
situated in altitude which would help their body being more efficient. But, Tanzania, Nepal,
Bolivia are also countries with the same particularities and are not as successful. Consequently,
this makes this explanation unfounded. Moreover, this activity used to be dominated by
Scandinavian countries in the 20s (even if African regions weren’t able to participate to sportive
events during this period, Scandinavian should still dominate nowadays).
We also used to believe that black-skinned people had biologic advantages in short-distance
running and weren’t able to resist to long distance. Once again, this theory has been unverified
by Francesca Sacco, Gérald Gremion in their article called “Le mythe de l’«avantage
génétique» des sportifs africains” - 2001.
Anthropologists also studied the fact that these populations History was led by nomadism. But
once again, nothing says that this trend was more current than in other countries.
Rumors also said that these populations, while they were young, were going to school by
running. But why would they run rather than walk. We can also add that, most of the spotted
sportsmen are coming from urban towns or places where there are several schools, which
reduces their time to go to school.
The real answer is of another type. If we focus on Morocco, and its sociohistorical fundament,
we can understand that since the 30s’, the population was fervent of sports. But as all sports
were forbidden for them, they had to find something to do sport without being condemned and
no necessity of equipment. The solution was running.
Obviously, they started running in order to practice sport. Then, logically, the idea that
Moroccans were good in running has spread. This belief has continued after their independence
in 1956 and programs of detection and formation have been set up during the 1980s.

19
Thus, the young population has seen an opportunity of social ascension, and thanks to that, the
country has “produced” a huge quantity of talents.
Moreover, the context helped a lot. We have observed a construction of demand with the arrival
of a particular form of professional athletics during the 1980s. There was no salary attributed
to these sportsmen, only remuneration by primes of performance and an inegalitarian
distribution of earnings. This led the athletes to a problematic situation on the aspect of material.
Unfortunately, European athletes started to disappear from this market, and so, left more space
to other athletes, capable to accept this insecure situation.
This observation suggests that European performers became less competitive and Africans
started to have a better reputation. In numbers:
- In 1984, 94 European athletes were able to run the 5000 meters under 13’40 minutes,
while in 1996, 37 only were able to do it. It represents a decrease of 60%.
- During the same period, for African athletes, they were 14 in 1984, while they were 71
in 1996, which is a bit more of 5 times better.
With this analysis we may understand that African are not biologically, geographically
advantaged compared to their European neighbors, but that it is simply related to historic
conditions. While the first ones were seeing an opportunity of promotion, the second ones were
seeing a social decline.
Additionally, Morocco, since 2005 is less implicated in promotion of their athletic talents and
has since constated a diminution of their number of talents.
To go further in this observation, Manuel Schotté made an ethnographic investigation by taking
beginners and professionals to understand how a professional career is built.
For these sportsmen he saw that:
- For braving the difficulty of the activity, the conditions and dispositions of families had
to be considered. In fact, it is not in the poorest families that you will find the greatest
champions (even if they may be the most determined) but in families whom, will have
security and regularity in their lives, to be able to fight intensive trainings.
- The capacity of the athlete to obtain a Visa to quit the country is also an important factor.
It is important to know that the international market is concentrated in Europe. Then,
having family in Europe or a diploma in higher studies will help them. But this is only
the first step, because, once they will be in Europe, they will have to benefit of a resident
permit (being an athlete isn’t a valuable argument).

20
With these several schemas we have been able to understand the underdevelopment of Africa.
Regarding the governments and organizations, we can see that these ones can be led by
problems such as corruption, a low implication in the development of infrastructures, facts that
complicate the personal improvement of African Sportsmen. More than being abandoned or
unfollowed by real intermediaries, these sportsmen have a road strewn with obstacles, to be
able to benefit of a successful career in sports.
This road is amplified by the facts that they also have a lack of knowledge and there is also the
interest of the other parties that can be in opposition with theirs. This case is even more
important in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Moreover, as infrastructures are not modernized, renovated, or created, the idea would be to
reach a developed country for them with an organization which follows them at the beginning
of their career, make them reach success with formation and training, without making use of
them.
This is why I arrived at a problematic which consists in: How to create a talent program in a
Sub-Saharan country, in order, to facilitate the success of a sportsman/woman?

21
II. FIELD STUDY: WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE LACK
OF IMPLICATION OF THE AFRICAN ACTORS IN SPORTS ON THE
CONTINENT’S DEVELOPMENT?
To develop this part, I made 5 interviews from 30 minutes to a bit more than an hour with
professionals of sport. I prepared for each of them a specific survey to get qualitative
information. These professionals are:
- Loïc Ravenel (annex (13)) and Raffaele Poli (annex (16)), from the CIES (Centre
International d’Etude du sport). This research group also created the Football
Observatory in order to furnish impactful statistics to international federations such as
the FIFA or FIBA.
- Stanislas Frenkiel (annex (14)) who is a sports historian, teacher and searcher at the
UFR STAPS (Unité de Formation et de Recherche Sciences et Techniques des Activités
Physiques et Sportives). He also made researches about sports migrations, regulation
about the sports market, but also around the hidden parts of professional
sportsmen/women (violence impacting them in terms of economy, social, States or
personal life). His website is: www.stanislasfrenkiel.com.
- Fabrice Poulain (annex (15)), professional of Marketing and communication, he co-
founded Keur of Champions with Souleymane Mbaye (3 times world champion in
heavy weight boxing. Keur of Champions is a boxing hall located in Dakar (Senegal)
trying to attract active people and give them the passion of boxing. They have 2
domains. The first one consists in, leisure and the second one, in forming and following
potential professional boxers. The website is: http://keurofchampions.com.
- Christophe Gleizes (annex (28)) who wrote the book « Magique système : l’esclavage
moderne des footballeurs africains ».
I also made benchmarking using several sports (football, basketball and marathon) and different
types of institutions (forming center, association, clubs).
With the several interviews and reports from professional institutions, I will be able to make an
analysis and a link of the collected information. Furthermore, I will show you more precisely,
the impact of the lack of implication from the African actors. You will see that there are several
types of actors, and the simple fact that their interests are not always the same, can lead to
several situations (desired for some, undesired for others). My goal in defining a talent program
in Sub-Saharan countries is to show you that, it may not be that simple to create a program, for
several facts such as: each actors investment (local or international), the network, the selection

22
of the country (more or less developed), etc. and the consequences ensuing. Thus, the ultimate
observation will put forward, the hardness (at least in short term) of an African player to stay
in the Continent, but also the same hardness to quit the continent with good conditions.
(A)LOCAL ACTORS REDUCED CONTRIBUTION: A MISUNDERSTANDING
OF THE SPORTS SECTOR IMPACT OR OTHER PRIORITIES?
More than a reduced contribution, it is important to understand one of a major problem
described by Christophe Gleizes in his book and the interview made (annex (28)). The point is
that, 90% of African players, to be able to enter a major league, in occident, are pushed to
change their age and to change their names. This is why, Christophe Gleizes’ book is named
Magique Système. Magique that can be traduced by “magic” determines the fact that this
modification of age and identity is done for 2 facts:
- The age, in order to be more competitive, a younger player is always more attractive.
- The identity, which makes a player non-identifiable by the federation and as a result,
makes this player cheaper (because the club buying him won’t have to pay the formation
fees to the African club).
Système that can be traduced by “system” determines the neocolonialism, in which, occidental
clubs can buy African players “for free” without any restriction, as they are ready to do anything
to enter a prestigious league.
As a consequence of this malicious organization in which everyone is concerned, except
African clubs, these African clubs are not gaining the money they should have and are not able
to develop themselves neither. They can’t denounce this organization as legal fees are
expensive. Moreover, players are condemned to do whatever they agents ask them to do,
because these agents know the illegal secret of their players.
AT AN INTERNATIONAL LEVEL
Thanks to, interviews made with Loïc Ravenel at the CIES and Stanislas Frenkiel (annex (13),
(14)), I have been able to understand that it may be too late to develop the African
championships, in order to make them compete with occidental ones. Here are some
explanations.

23
To start, it should be important to put forward the fact that, Africa, uses mostly its competitive
advantages in order to survive, and in consequence limits diversification. In fact, we all know
that Africa is rich in raw materials and tourism, which is good and bad. The good side is that
raw materials and tourism are sources of income, and so they could be using these revenues to
develop the continent. The bad side is that these sources are also synonym of territory wars,
they also make Africa depend on the variation of prices (such as oil shocks) or even seasonality,
because foreign people will come mostly during summer. Additionally, the last numbers of the
World Trade Organization (WTO) are proving the lack of investments between the countries
inside the continent, by saying that Africa only represents 3% of the worldwide business or that
only 10% of its trades are made internally.
We may also take again the case of football which is the most obvious example. The fact is
that, most of the revenues of the major championships are going to foreign investors. We have
seen previously that Total became the sponsor of several cups in Africa and that Canal+ had
the audio-visual rights. It proves that these foreign companies have a great part of control for
these African cups. This could be a great thing for Africa if they had equal interests. In fact,
“Vincent Bolloré’s company mobilizes its best teams on all fields during CAN. The chain is
probably interested because it is losing a lot of ground in France. Its mobilization to broadcast
matches also responds to a need to capture advertisements”7
. In the same time, Total wants to
increase its market shares in Africa because there is an enormous competition.
Regarding the CAF, they want to benefit of these investments for the development of sports in
Africa. But what is hidden is that, European instances don’t have any interest in developing the
African sports market, as it would become competitive and make them lose some market shares.
Indeed, if African football develops, this would authorize players to become more performant,
make their value increase, especially for Europe. Thanks to Stanislas Frenkiel, I learned that an
African player usually costs 30% less than a European player. Thus, if their value increase, they
would not be bought anymore and have to stay in Africa. If this happens, the African
championship could also be more relevant. You have understood it, organizations such as
UEFA don’t have any interest in a change of situation.
Moreover, the mobilization of foreign investors puts them upfront in terms of visibility at the
expense of African companies. It also impeaches local channels to retransmit clear images and
correct comments.
7
Anassa Maiga, Vu du Mali. Pourquoi la Coupe d’Afrique des nations n’est pas si africaine, July 17th 2017

24
AT A LOCAL LEVEL
Historically, “thanks to” colonization, some countries have been able to benefit of
infrastructures in sports and develop their talents with this type of opportunities. The objective
was to show their power worldwide with the presence of sports post-colonization. Morocco,
Algeria have been able to make it in athletics and football, by becoming a huge nation of
long/mid-distance running for the first one, and, by bringing back several players in the national
team from France for the 1958 World cup for the second one. But with events such as, a change
of president, an oil shock, raw material crisis, etc. priorities can easily change. With the annex
(17), we can see that the majority of “big” stadiums have been built post-colonization. Most of
them were in South Africa, which is the most developed country of Africa and Middle East.
They also had a wish of developing their athletes at this period.
This is the disadvantage of most of the developing countries, which often prefer to invest in
other sectors to develop their countries. Globally, following the study of AT Kearney, sports
engendered 700 billion dollars in 2017, which represented around 1% of the worldwide Growth
Domestic Product (GDP). It also has an increase of around 4% per year. The consulting firm
also believes that the sports industry goes faster than the global GDP, with the growth of
“infrastructure construction, sporting goods, licensed products and live sports events”.
Unfortunately, at least for the moment, Africa is bereaved of this growth because of a lack of
investment or a lack of capacity of investment. In fact, “the regional distribution of this global
turnover gives North America the sector's tenor with 40% of revenues. Generally, the studies
carried out form a middle Eastern Africa Europe bloc that would be the second region on the
sports market with 34% of the total turnover (while Pacific Asia is at 15% and South America
4%). But in reality, Africa is hardly present in these statistics”8
.
In addition of this lack of infrastructures, corruption is present and slows down the access to
sport.
It is also important to consider that, with the lack of local investors, the debts, African
institutions have to find some funds outside. An example of this theory is that “All CANs, since
Mali in 2002, Tunisia in 2004, Egypt in 2006, Ghana in 2008 and Angola in 2010, have
benefited from international resources to improve the environment of competition venues”9
.
These investors can be from everywhere. In fact, considering the study of
https://www.agenceecofin.com/economie/0111-61399-le-top-10-des-pays-pourvoyeurs-d-
8
Ristel Tchounand, Marché du sport : l'Afrique doit faire ses classes !, March 6th 2017
9
Jean-Pierre Augustin, Éléments géopolitiques du sport africain, June 2010

25
investissements-directs-etrangers-vers-l-afrique-selon-ernest-young (April 8th ,2020), the top
3 investors in 2017 were:
1) United-States
2) United Kingdom
3) France
Thus, following the study of the same website, https://www.agenceecofin.com/economie/1306-
66938-les-investissements-directs-etrangers-ont-progresse-de-11-en-afrique-en-2018-a-46-
milliards-cnuced (April 8th ,2020), the top 3 destinations of these investments in 2018 are:
1) Egypt
2) South Africa
3) Democratic Republic of Congo
Moreover, I understood, by interviewing Raffaele Poli (annex (16)) that the investments in
infrastructures, were prioritized to huge infrastructures dedicated to manufacture and services.
Regarding sports, they are dedicated to events such as CAN, national cups, etc. The problem is
that these infrastructures are not accessible to training or formation of athletes and sportsmen.
Finally, these infrastructures can also have some derivate uses such as, weddings, funerals,
concerts… In fact, everything, except its original use. Indeed, this can contribute to a
degradation of the infrastructures, and in conclusion, that sportsmen are not able to train
themselves and exploit their potential. Unfortunately, the biggest problem is that they don’t
have any district pitches at disposition, and they have to play on abandoned grounds. The only
pitches that can be accessible are belongings of private structures such as schools or companies,
but these are not free, and they would have to pay. And paying for hobbies isn’t a priority in a
continent who experiences a mass poverty.
We can also add that these investors are investing for their own interests and that finally, there
isn’t any transfer of knowledge.
Today, China is the first investor in Africa and built more than 10000 companies in Africa.
WHAT IS DONE?
But to come back on sports, we can also observe what is done from these foreign investors, in
order to develop sports in Africa, and permit a better access of African sportsmen to a better
quality of life.
In fact, we can consider the implication of the FIFA. In February 2020, Gianni Infantino
(President of the FIFA) announced that:

26
- He desired to create an “African super league” with 20 permanent clubs. For Loïc
Ravenel (annex (13)) this could help the African championships, to stronger themselves
with some conditions. It could create a feeling of nationalism, and then engender more
spectators, bring medias, bring new players and then be more beneficial financially.
Considering that, the FIFA also wanted to reinforce the referees by retaining “twenty of
FIFA's best African referees and make them professionals, giving them permanent
contracts. They must be the guardians of our game and we must protect them by making
them totally autonomous”10
- In collaboration with the CAF, the FIFA wanted to reunite a fund of 1 billion euros, by
mobilizing several partners, in order to, create “high standing” infrastructures in each
of the 54 countries of Africa.
- Another idea was to organize the CAN every 4 years rather than every 2 years, to be
able prepare correctly the event, make it an attraction for the world and multiply the
revenues from 4 to 6.
Furthermore, in the same idea, the Ivory Coast government created a National Plan of
Development (NPD) which is followed by other countries such as Cameroon.
The strategic idea is to make the people live in harmony and security, particularly for women
and children, create a national wealth and ensure the growth of the country, to make the
population have a great living environment.
Huge investments and reforms have been made, and consequently, they have been able to think
of a National Policy of Sports (NPS). The goal of this plan is to use sport as a factor of
improvement of well-being, social cohesion. However, this plan offers the possibility to
increase formation.
Of course, this plan requires funds. This is why the Ivorian minister Albert François announced
that the country needed around 643,4 million dollars for the period 2016 to 2020. Proof that the
Ivorian state is considering sports. They also signed a convention with WinWin Afrique, a
French platform which reunites funds for development by sport. This convention aims to build
sport schools, but also to create a program desiring to promote sports.
Christophe Gleizes encourages this idea of sports programs as they are necessary to develop
performances of African sportsmen/women. He believes that for football, at the age of 8, they
are competitive, but with the lack of formation, they are not able to be competitive enough at
the age of 14 because they won’t know, the rules of offside or tactics of the sport.
10
Gianni Infantino, FIFA declaration, Morocco, February 1st ,2020

27
FOOTBALL IN SENEGAL
By interviewing Fabrice Poulain, I remembered that Africa had a huge population, and so, some
urbanized and developed cities. In fact, 1 person worldwide out of 6 is living in Africa. Such
as Senegal which has a population of more than 17 million people in 2020. Far from having the
biggest population of Africa, he explained me that in the biggest towns such as Dakar (about 5
million inhabitants), people love sports. This is why he created a boxing hall called Keur de
Champions with Souleymane MBaye (3 times boxing worldwide champion), in order to satisfy
the demand. Moreover, he highlighted the fact that the sportsmen are also sportswomen. This
means that there is a new way of thinking and that prestigious domains are not anymore limited
to men.
Furthermore, bringing back the knowledge from foreign countries can be badly perceived. Even
if Senegal has an occidental way of thinking relatively to its History.
Effectively, the book L’Afrique et la planète football written in 2010, by Paul Dietschy and
David Claude Kemo-Keimbou explains the relation that Senegal has with football (page 64).
Senegal is the oldest French colony of black Africa. It was on the French West Africa (FWA)
territory (group of 8 French colonies), where the occidental influence had better evolve.
Since 1916, the inhabitants of Saint-Louis, Gorée, Rufisque and Dakar (Senegal) had full rights
of French citizenship. Moreover, the first football match of FWA happened in Dakar. Following
the calculations of Bernadette Deville-Danthu (historian), Senegal was regrouping 40% of the
FWA clubs in 1923 (16 out of 40) and 35% in 1939 (36 out of 101).
However, the first team has been created in July 1921 by the Dakar Shooters Sports Union,
followed by the team of Jeanne d’Arc, created by Father Lecoq (priest of Dakar). It has been
followed by European formations in Senegal such as one, created in the Dakar Nautical Club.
The first team exclusively created by Africans was the Union Sportive Indigène (USI), in July
1929. Unfortunately, Father Lecoq was threatening to exclude of church each Christian of this
team if they were playing against Jeanne d’Arc. Proof that football was under authority of
churches, schools and barracks (the colonial 6th artillery regiment were part of these).
But in today’s context, Fabrice Poulain believes that there are 4 major problems:
1. Bad formation, because there is a lot of theory but not enough application of this theory.
2. In consequence of the first point: incapacity.
3. A lot of jealousy from Senegalese towards repatriated people, which leads them to
disgust the repatriated people.

28
4. Susceptibility because the locals had the same formation as the repatriated but didn’t
success in the same way.
This is an explanation of why he dedicates his knowledge to Africa, but also of how, foreign
investors can contribute to the development of sports in Africa.
He also gave me some examples of several associations or football clubs working in
collaboration with Senegal. This is why I am going to take the example of one of them to make
you understand how they work.
The Dakar Sacré Cœur (DSC) :
The Sportive Association of the Dakar Sacré-Cœur is a football Senegalese club created in
2005 and situated in Dakar (more precisely in the town of SICAP-Mermoz). In 2003, they had
put in place a partnership with the Institute of the brothers of the Sacré-Coeur, in order to have
a strong club inspired by its environment and desiring to participate in the development of
Africa.
For that, they built with partners and friends a great space with several equipment that would
permit the footballers to develop their capacities.
Thanks to their partners (Canal+, Orange, Eiffage and OL), they have been able to beneficiate
of a structure of 2,5 hectares, 2 pitches and more than 2000 squared meters of buildings.
The partnership with the OL (Olympique Lyonnais) started from the desire of Matthieu Chupin
(president of the DSC) to recruit Alain Olio (who was educator at the OL) but who hadn’t
enough revenue to recruit him.
This first partnership started in 2015 and has been renewed up to 2021.
The project was born from several problems:
- Lack of infrastructures.
- Coaches had a lack of formation.
- Lots of young Senegalese quitted Senegal in bad conditions and felt abandoned in a
hard world. Only a few of them have been able to be in good football conditions, and,
for the others, reconversion is really difficult.
- Sport helps having a wealthy life and it plays a role in facilitation of tolerance and
national cohesion.
- Sport is also a beautiful instrument of education and insertion.
Thanks to a functional managerial structure (annex (18)), they are able to develop their activities
in a coherent way, where each actor can show up and concentrate on his/her specialty in his/her
domain and have the whole responsibility of it.
Here are the reasons for why they developed 3 main activities:

29
1. Professional football
They have a professional women and men football team evolving in the Senegalese first league,
and a training center, more than 80 young players in categories of Under 13 (U13) and Under
19 (U19). These young players are entirely financed by the organization which wants to go
further than only sports, it is also a vector of education.
The partnership with the OL seems to be a win-win situation as, the French football club
furnishes equipment necessary to the development of the DSC, its knowledge but also its brand
image. In fact, the OL is seen as a professional club, recognized worldwide, or at least in
Europe, for its values and its formation center which is the best of France and one of the best
in Europe. In fact, the Olympique Lyonnais has formed players playing in the best clubs of the
world and/or who are World Champions with the French national team, such as:
- Karim Benzema (Real Madrid),
- Samuel Umtiti (FC Barcelona and World Champion),
- Nabil Fekir (Real Betis Balompié, World Champion and best hope of Ligue 1 during
the season 2014-2015),
- Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal),
- Sydney Govou (Retired player of the OL and of the National French team, he is also the
godfather of the partnership between the OL and the DSC),
- And the new one Rayan Cherki (who plays in the junior national French team, made his
first apparition as a senior in a Top 5 league at 16 years old and is seen as a potential
major player of the next generation).
The goal of the OL, even if they are part of the logo of the DSC, is not to interact or disorganize
the organization of the DSC, but to supervise the initial plan and make sure it is well respected.
For that, both institutions often discuss of the needs and take decisions together. By example,
when the OL learned that Matthieu Chopin desired to create an activity “sports-study” which
already exists in France, they knew that they would need the to be in contact with politics and
institutions. This is why the Olympique Lyonnais went directly in Dakar in order to meet these
institutions and more precisely the French consulate.
This partnership seems to work if we focus on the results of the feminine DSC and their
incredible results during the season 2018-2019.
They have won 12 matches out of 12, gained 36 points out of 36, scored 73 goals and conceded
only 4 goals.
In another side, the opportunity for the OL which is followed by 100 000 people in Senegal, is
to be able to recruit the best player of the center of formation. Like it happened in July 17th

30
,2017 with Ousseynou Ndiaye, first player of the DSC who signed a professional contract of 3
years and has recently extended it up to 2023, with the OL. This young player of 21 years old
(November 24th ,1998) integrated the group of National 2 in order to get prepared. He is also
titular in the U23 (Under 23) national team of Senegal.
2. Leisure sport
This activity reunites around 1800 children in a leisure sport school. They offer to children from
3 years old to 23 years old a learning of football rules, integration via respect of the other and
self-development. With professionals, certified formators and installations. The goals are to
learn them human values with sport, solidarity, transcendence, and transmission of
determination.
To help development of feminine sport, they suggest 25% reductions for girls. They also have
reductions of 20% for students of the school of Sacré-Coeur. The other students studying near
the sport leisure school of Sacré-Coeur have a 10% reduction.
Leisure sport is not only a scholar activity. It also has a rental system. Il fact the DSC proposes
a rent of their pitches and infrastructures between 6:00 PM and 3:00 AM. Statistically, it
represents a transit of 8000 to 10000 people in the enclosure of the establishment. As you can
realize it, it constitutes an important part of the turnover.
They are also able to organize several activities and events for companies (200 are concerned)
like tournaments, animations, product launches or seminaries.
3. Citizen club
With this domain, they want to promote the access of football and education to everybody.
Indeed, they have activities dedicated to children with intellectual disabilities or children living
in the streets. For that, they have a shelter to take care of them.
Moreover, they organize tournaments for important and real causes that can be diabetes, eco-
responsibility, women, veterans… These events are subsidized and made in collaboration with
associations:
- Équipe Aidons les Talibés which is an association sensible to the conditions of life of
children living in the streets (@aidonslestalibes on Facebook).
- Special Olympics Senegal desiring to integrate by sports, children with intellectual
disabilities. (@specialolympicssenegal on Facebook).
- Village Pilote which wants to prevent, protect and reinsert children living in the streets
(www.villagepilote.org, (April 24 ,2020)).

31
In conclusion, this project, isn’t only for football and profit, but it contributes to development
of the future generations in its globality and for a corporate social responsibility engagement,
towards Senegal (DSC), France (OL) and globalization.
BASKETBALL IN MADAGASCAR
A.T. Kearney which is an American strategy consulting firm has made a study in 2009 (annex
(19)) to analyze the representation of each sport worldwide. Following this study, and with no
surprise, Football was the top 1 sport in terms of events and popularity, with 43% of the market
shares. While Basketball is 5th with 6% of market shares. The major events in basketball are
the NBA playoffs (National Basketball Association - United States) or the Euroleague (Europe)
under the direction of the FIBA. In fact, this sport is followed in majority in the United States
of America (USA) as it is a national sport and in Europe.
But what is the situation of African players in these two institutions?
During the season 2018-2019, there were 42 players who had an African origin and playing for
another country than USA such as Giannis Antetokounmpo (Nigeria, playing for Greece,
considered as a major player of the league), or Frank Ntilikina (Rwanda, playing for France).
It is also important to consider that the foreign players in the NBA are representing 21% (annex
(20)) of the total players in 2018-2019. Moreover, they represented 114 players and have an
average career of 6 years in the league.
We can also add that the real expatriates from Africa are 12 out of 114 with the example of the
player of the Philadelphia Sixers, Joel Embiid (Cameroon, seen as a major player of the league).
In WNBA (annex (21)), which is the NBA league for women, these numbers are reduced. In
fact, while a man will play 6 years in the league, a woman will only play 3,2 years. The number
of foreign players is also limited to 19 with only 2 African in the list.
If we make the same comparison in the FIBA, the numbers are even worse, despite the links
between Europe and Africa. The annex (22) and (23)) explains that African men represent 2%
in Euroleague and 2,4% in the BCL (Basketball Champions League created in 2016) while
women represent 1,5% and 0,9% in these respective leagues.
This low stability can be explained by the stability of transfers that we can observe on the
International Basketball Migratory Report made by the CIES to the FIBA in 2019 (annex (24))
which shows a positive migratory balance from Africa (= more exports than imports), even
though, this balance is low and proves the few numbers of African players in NBA or FIBA.
Following the annex (25), the majority of these players are from Senegal, Democratic Republic

32
of Congo, Cameroon and Nigeria, which are the most developed African countries in terms of
sports.
In opposition, Madagascar, has a negative migration balance. It means that they import more
foreign players than they export locals. I found interesting to show you a contrast between, how
works an African “developed” sport country such as Senegal in football, and a low developed
sport country such as Madagascar in basketball. Thus, the fact that the balance in Madagascar
is negative can hypothetically be, because talents are not attractive in other countries because
of a lack of development, or that the country is attractive for foreigners.
But at first, the objective will be to understand, how the NBA and the FIBA are trying to
collaborate, to develop sports through basketball in Africa.
For the first time, the NBA launched a competition sponsored by itself, outside of its territory.
In Africa, this championship will be named BAL (Basketball Africa League). This competition
was supposed to start in March ,2020 but because of the epidemy of the Covid-19, this hasn’t
been possible, and the competition will be reported. To avoid long distances, the competition
will be divided in limited towns: Cairo (Egypt), Dakar (Senegal), Lagos (Nigeria), Luanda
(Angola), Rabat (Morocco), and Monastir (Tunisia). The final four will happen in Kigali
(Rwanda).
Each team will be composed of 16 players with quotas:
- 2 players maximum from another continent,
- 8 players minimum from the country of origin of the club,
- 4 players maximum from another African country.
The games will be played with the international rules of the FIBA and not NBA. An example
of a different rule is the 3-point line that will be at 6m25 and not 7m23.
At the beginning, 31 clubs were selected in order to participate to the BAL. The first round was
between October 15th, 2019 and November 3rd, 2019. The teams were separated into 6 groups.
Thus, these qualifications phases are made, in order, to select only 12 teams for the BAL that
will be divided into 2 conferences. The best teams will dispute a Final Four and a final.
The top 12 of this first edition are:
Le Groupement Sportif des Pétroliers (GSP - Algeria), Petro de Luanda (Angola), Forces
Armées de Police Basket Ball (Cameroon), Zamalek (Egypt), AS Police (Mali), AS Salé
(Morocco), Ferroviario de Maputo (Mozambique), Rivers Hoopers (Nigeria), Patriots
(Rwanda), AS Douanes (Senegal), L’Union Sportive Monastirienne (Tunisia) and Gendarmerie
Nationale Basketball Club (GNBC - Madagascar).

33
The main goal of the competition is to develop a platform, authorizing African countries to
develop basketball and reunite the best teams of the continent. With this event, Africa will be
able to attract new talents, new partners, new investors, new tourists and then develop its
economy, infrastructures and education. If you observe the name of the teams, you easily
understand that these are a good representation of how teams are built. Associations,
organizations and companies have an enormous impact in the structuration of African teams.
Additionally, more than the contribution of the NBA and FIBA, the championship is
exclusively sponsored by Nike and Jordan Brand. They furnish jerseys, equipment, training
clothes, etc.
Now, the goal will be to understand, how Madagascar, a country which isn’t specially
recognized as a big nation of basketball, has been able to have 2 teams participating in the first
phase of qualification (Antananarivo and GNBC) and 1 team qualified in the top 12 (GNBC).
First, basketball in Madagascar is under the authority of the FMBB (Fédération Malagasy de
Basketball) which is directed by Jean Michel Ramaroson. Of course, its goal is to promote and
develop basketball in the country. Since 1963, they are affiliated to the FIBA to represent the
sport towards authorities and sportive organizations worldwide. It also defends the moral and
material interests of basketball in Madagascar. The organization implicates 192 clubs and
around 7200 players. The national team has never participated to the Olympics nor the World
Cup, but has already participated to the CAN of basketball and the Island games of the Indian
Ocean and has won the title in 2019. This new ascent has been logically followed by a
partnership with the NBA. In this matter, a Junior Madagascar Youth Development has been
put in place in May 9th ,2020. 30 private and public schools will represent the NBA teams and
there will be 10 more feminine teams in order to reinforce the gender implication progressively.
To make sure of the effectiveness of the program, there will be a technical support and NBA
technicians (NBA League Training Clinic), for the support of players, coaches and officials.
To improve this organization, players will beneficiate of jerseys, balls and medals.
The structure will have some rules to stay safe. Such as, age standards (between 16 and 20), a
right of participation fixed to 200 000 ariary (local money) for boys and 100 000 for girls.
In the other hand, this program has also a role of educational management, by teaching the
fundamentals, team spirit, respect, work in team.
Moreover, they work with the USGA (United States Graduates Association) and the BSM
(British School of Madagascar) to put in place the “More Than Basketball” (MTB), to extend
the added value supported by basketball. English and leadership development will also be part
of this program to implicate more and more schools.

34
Secondly, Mamy Raoul RAVELOMANANA the president of the university of Antananarivo
and Jean Michel Ramaroson have concluded an agreement to develop a university
championship that could cross the borders of Africa. The goals are the same as the Junior
Madagascar Youth Development.
These programs are laudable, but the FMBB should be careful of not going too fast. In fact, the
lack of infrastructures can quickly reach its limits. These new championships are directly in
competition with the clubs’ championships. Which means that they are played at the same time.
The problem would be that the best young players would have to make a choice, rather chose
their club or their school.
In another side, the FMBB wants to launch a 3x3 championship (basketball with 3 players
instead of 5). This could limit the number of gymnasiums disponible and then shorter the
championships calendars.
Additionally, FMBB is powerless towards the disparities between the teams. I explain: for
women, a rule stipulates that, a player who is an active player representing the national team
can’t play for a club, thing that happened in the region of Diana which won the championship
this year. For men, there is two historic major teams: the GNBC and Antananarivo (COSPN).
These are massively recruiting the national players in order to stay the best, thus, each year, the
victory is limited to these two teams. Indeed, the other teams of the N1A (first division of
basketball) are considering their participation as the price is high (1st phase = 50 million ariary;
2nd phase = 100 million to 200 million ariary) and as they also know that they won’t win. Fact
that makes the competition unsecure.
MARATHON IN KENYA
To make a coherent study, I first chose the major sport in a “developed” African country
regarding sports, then I chose another collective sport in a developing country which is the 5th
poorest country in the world and finally, I would like to present you the situation of an
individual sport in another African country.
A simple definition of the marathon from the Larousse dictionary is: Long distance running
(42.195 km), which is an Olympic discipline”.
More than being an Olympic discipline, it is also the first discipline where a black-skinned
African has won a gold medal. In 1960, during the Olympics of Roma, the Ethiopian Abebe
Bikila obtained the first place by running barefooted. Since then, marathon has become a war
between Morocco, Ethiopia and Kenya. As explained in pages 18 to 20, Kenya has a British
colonial heritage that they have been able to exploit.

35
Indeed, world records in marathon are held by Kenyans: Eliud Kipchoge for men in 2 hours 01
minute and Mary Keitany for women in 2 hours 18 minutes. They also have 12 gold medals in
Olympic games.
Thanks to https://www.businessfrance.fr/le-marche-de-la-filiere-sport-au-kenya (April 27
,2020), I have been able to find several characteristics which can explain the development of
sports and marathon in Kenya.
Thus, more than being an Olympic marathon nation, they have developed a market around
sports that permits them to entertain their athletes.
On one side, Kenya is a nation of sports, where sports bet is developed: they are one of the most
important Sub-Saharan country in betting (around 20 million dollars per year) and this
beneficiates to Kenyan companies such as Sportpesa, Betway, Betin, Mcheza…
In another side, they import the majority of their equipment, in majority from China (40% in
2017), but also Spain, United States, India or France, which is a cause/consequence of the lack
of local equipment companies.
Regarding infrastructures, they have around 28 stadiums, like the Moi International Sports
Center (60 000 people) or the Nyayo National Stadium (30 000 person). Unfortunately, they do
not respect the international norms because of a lack of maintenance.
In fact, Kenya has encountered corruption and bad management from public actors. But since
April ,2013, the actual president Uhuru Kenyatta aims to go further in sports development.
For that, he named Rashid E. Moham, who is the Minister of Sports, Culture and Arts and
allocated him a budget of 19 million euros of budget during 2018-2019 and 29 million euros
during 2018-2020, in order to develop infrastructures.
This would allow the country to beneficiate of a sportive tourism around events on the Kenyan
highlands History (where most of the marathonists train themselves) for well-known marathons
such as the Lewa marathon. This marathon had 180 participants at its creation in 2010, 1200 in
2015 and accumulated more than 5 million dollars during these 5 years for the wildlife
preservation.
Finally, the High-Altitude Training Center (HATC), in Iten (near the Mount Kenya), situated
in the highlands of Kenya, has become a place to go if you want to pretend to be a marathon
champion.
Created by Lornah Kiplagat, a Dutch long-distance runner born in Kenya (4 times World
champion), the HATC is opened to everyone, from recreational to elite level. “HATC is at an
altitude of 2400 meters in Iten, 32km from Eldoret. Iten is the capital of the World for athletics,
there are over 800 athletes training in Iten and among them are World Champions, Olympic

36
Champions and World record holders. The Centre is surrounded by miles of dirt roads, perfect
for running and mountain biking, the HATC has a 25m swimming pool, a fully equipped gym,
a 400m all-weather tartan track. Also, there is a 400-meter dirt track and there are plenty of
hills”11
. (annex 26)). This is a good point because it proves that even if the majority of
investments in sports are made by foreigners (annex (16)) as Raffaele Poli mentioned it, there
can still be local investors aware of the problematics, helping their countries.
(B) SPORTSMEN AND THEIR AGENTS SUFFERING OF THEIR SITUATION?
Following the report of https://fr.statista.com/statistiques/917055/pays-les-plus-pauvres-
monde/ (April 27 ,2020), 21 of the poorest countries out of 25 are situated in the African
continent. This represents more than one third of the countries of the continent, and it can
explain a part of the lack of sport’s development. With this lack of development, it can also
explain that sportsmen can’t have a necessary formation and professional intermediaries in
order to become competitive with the occident.
Additionally, I learned with Raffaele Poli (annex (16)) that even if the intermediaries are sent
by occidental clubs, private agents, issued of diasporas, people having a local network, these
intermediaries can also be human traffickers that don’t have any relation with sports. They only
use the argument of sport, to steal sportsmen’s money by sending them out of the borders. Thus,
the agents use their illegal network, and sometimes, they only take the money without doing
anything else. There, we can understand that regardless of his will, the sports sector can be
immoral. Moreover, Dr. Poli and Mr. Gleizes, also explained me that, finally, the diploma of
agent isn’t a necessity to become an intermediary. It is only a matter of a capacity of finding
good prospects and create a trust feeling. This is why, even in the top 5 championships we can
find players like Kylian MBappe (Paris Saint-Germain, France) or Adrien Rabiot (Turin
Juventus, Italy), followed by their own families.
That being said, African players have to become as competitive as possible to access to “glory”.
But, the non-access to a great environment (infrastructures, support…) to be competitive can
lead to derivative comportments.
11
https://hatc-iten.com/about/, About HATC, 2018

37
DOPING
Doping, for a sportsman is the “action of doping, taking substances to see his physical
performance increase”.12
This phenomenon that we can find in every sport is regulated by the WADA (World Anti-
Doping Agency) created in 1999, which promotes, coordinates and supervises the conflict
against doping.
In football, we have seen the case of Mohamed Kallon, who is still the most famous player of
Sierra Leone. Recruited by the Inter Milan (Italy) in 1995, he has been tested positive in 2003
to nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, during a match against Udinese (Italy). For that, he has been
suspended 8 months. Since that event, he has been transferred to the AS Monaco (France),
before being transferred to clubs of Greece, United Arab Emirates and China. At the end of his
career, he decided to come back in Sierra Leone where he bought a club, the Sierra Fisheries
that he renamed Kallon FC, club in which he became player and owner. Then, he has been
named in 2014, selector of the U17 (Under 17) national football team of Sierra Leone. This end
of career is a “give-back behavior”, observable fact that I will explain in the “Give-Back
behavior” part.
The Nigerian player of basketball Chamberlain Oguchi has also been caught for doping in 2013.
He was positive to a Russian stimulating drug called Bromantan and has been suspended 2
years. Originally used for astronauts, the properties are that they reduce pain sensitivity and
give a feeling of well-being. The Nigerian player, however, had a great comeback. At his return,
he won a gold medal in the African championship in 2015 and has been designated MVP (Most
Valuable Player) of the championship.
Last case, and not least, Rita Jeptoo, Kenyan woman athlete, has been suspended 2 years in
2014 after being controlled positive to EPO, an hormone which increases blood oxygenation.
She used to be an example of her domain. Before that she had won 3 times the marathon of
Boston (2006, 2013, 2014) and the marathon of Chicago in 2013.
This reveals 2 facts:
1. The wish of sportsmen to not come back to poverty: when a major event represents a
gain of around 200 000 dollars, a minor event can bring “only” hundred to thousand
dollars. "Because my family is poor, I had to take drugs to win my life"13
, this is what
told a Kenyan athlete by arguing that he couldn’t beat another athlete that was also
12
https://www.linternaute.fr/dictionnaire/fr/definition/dopage/, French Dictionary
13
Anonymous marathon athlete, interviewed by l’Express in “Au Kenya, comment sortir de la pauvreté ?”, Iten
(Kenya), July 30th ,2019

38
doped. In this document written by https://www.la-croix.com/Sport/Kenya-lutte-
longue-haleine-contre-dopage-2019-07-29-1301038244 (April 28, 2020), it has been
observed that 138 Kenyan athletes were positive during the period 2004 to 2018. In fact,
a huge part of these athletes has the same mindset and do not hesitate to take the risk,
and this can engender a vicious circle.
2. Additionally, the lack of organization from African countries highlights this problem.
On one side, the arrival of malicious pharmacist around sportive infrastructures,
attesting that they are only providing legal and medical products, even if the reality is
that they are also furnishing doubtful products.
On the other side, Kenyan institutions are waiting the last moment to act rather than
anticipate the problem. In fact, the only reason of why they created the ADAK (Anti-
Doping Agency of Kenya) is because the WADA threatened them to retire them from
the Olympics of Rio (Brazil) in 2016.
“GIVE BACK BEHAVIOR”
As Stanislas Frenkiel told me during our interview (annex (14)), there is a tendency where
expatriates are playing for their native country and bi nationals who grew up in occident are
playing for their land of welcome.
This analysis can be transposed in a way by the give-back behavior. This give back behavior
has been developed by Ernest Yeboah Acheampong (lecturer at the university of Winneba,
Ghana and researcher at the university of sports and social environment of Grenoble Rhône-
Alpes, France), in the book African players in Europe: Migration, Community, and Give Back
Behavior – 2019 (April 29, 2020) where he defines the behavior, by the fact of moving abroad
to play a sport that “can provide them (the sportsmen) with substantial economic incomes, some
of which can be allocated to support activities of the families, community and society at large
in their country of origin”14
. He also considers this behavior as “consubstantial” to African
migration. As the African countries are defined as underdeveloped and as the market of sport
is synonym of success, we can encounter a long-term management, in order to, use the revenues
of a sportsmen later, to increase his family’s, friend’s, community’s and/or government’s
situation.
Here are 3 various examples, still using the same sports (football, basketball, marathon).
14
Ernest Yeboah Acheampong, African players in Europe: Migration, Community, and Give Back Behavior,
chapter give back behavior is consubstantial to African behavior, October 15th ,2019

39
- Football: with the Liberian, George Weah who used to play for the Paris Saint-Germain
(France), he became the first non-European and African player to win the gold ball in
1995 while he was playing for the AC Milan (Italy). Today, he is still the only African
to have win this trophy. At the end of his sportive career and the second civil war of
Liberia, he started a politician career. He failed to the title of president in 2005 and vice-
president in 2011. It is finally in 2017-2018, that he became president. In 2018, followed
by the president of the CAF Ahmad Ahmad and the most famous football players of
their respective countries, Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast) and Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon),
his goals of the presidential term were to renovate infrastructures and to make his
country independent in agriculture. Thus, he arrived in a difficult situation in which his
country was fighting Ebola (2014-2016) and a civil war. His political opposition took
advantage of this situation by claiming that he isn’t doing enough against the economic
crisis, corruption and influence traffic.
- Basketball: Bismack Biyombo is a Congolese player born in 1992 defending the colors
of the NBA team Charlotte Hornets (belonging to Michael Jordan). He launched the
association Child of Africa. For the accomplishment of his project, he is accompanied
by personalities such as Akon (famous singer, also known for his managerial capacities,
he created a crypto money and wants to develop Senegal), Djimon Hounsou (famous
actor, in particular for his role in the movie Blood Diamond talking about civil wars and
quest for power/money in Africa’s geopolitics’ status) or Isha Sesey (a journalist from
Sierra Leone who has interviewed Michelle Obama). He also aims to promote his
association which tries to take off children from mines to bring them back to schools
and to collect money, by participating to several events like the Quai 54 in 2018
(enormous basketball event organized by Michael Jordan and reuniting famous players).
He also organizes crowdfunding in which he participates financially (with his 16 million
dollars revenue per year).
His implication seems logic as “nearly one hundred and fifty-two million children are
victims of forced labor worldwide, and among them, seventy-two million are in
Africa”15
.
- Marathon: with Lornah Kiplagat and her forming center HATC that I already evoked in
the sub-part Marathon in Kenya. Her target is to promote sport in Africa, particularly
marathon with a developed infrastructure and the possibility of running with
15
Bismack Biyombo interviewed by Séwa F. SOUROU in Negronews, 2018

40
professional athletes. She also launched her own sport apparel brand in 2014, called
Lornah sports.

41
III. MANAGERIAL RECOMMANDATIONS: WILL A TALENT
PROGRAM BE ENOUGH TO RAISE AWARENESS OF AFRICAN
ACTORS?
This objective of this final part is to understand, how to launch a talent program with the needs
of the African development, coherent with the world’s expectations. In the previous chapters
and with the interviews, reports, we have observed that some projects regarding sports have
already been launched and my goal would be to bring an added value in these kind of talent
programs. This is why I was thinking of expanding dedicated ideas for the women football
sector.
Women in football, because the observation is clear: according to a survey made by Ipsos
(2019), the interest of women towards football has bounced of 50% in 5 years, while Gianni
Infantino (President of the FIFA) wants to create an attractive strategy to encourage feminine
football. And it seems to work with the example of the World cup of 2019 which reunited elite
sponsors like Nike or Visa.
Indeed, to enrich this part, I will focus on the work already made by other organizations (in
particular in Part II), trying to take the best of these, and to avoid some observations made in
Part I. Thus, the purpose is to make appropriate recommendations in long and short term, in
order to, answer the problematic. For that, I will use management tools like a GANTT diagram
and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
A FEMININE TALENT PROGRAM’S NEEDS AND CONSEQUENCES,
OBSERVATIONS OF THE ORGANISATIONAL AND STATEGICAL
MANAGEMENT
Regarding women, it would be interesting to choose a country which beneficiates of “adapted”
conditions (of course, proportionally to African capacities and cultures). But it is necessary to
start in a developed town to attract a maximum of women and have a decent turnover, in order,
to, then, be able to develop the same programs in smaller towns and villages.
In a country such as Senegal it seems possible even if we can observe some limits. And so, this
talent project needs to be divided in 9 parts:

Thesis: Contribution of sports in Africa's development - Earwin Adany

Thesis: Contribution of sports in Africa's development - Earwin Adany

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