By Khalifa Hemed
Published January 4, 2018
A sports business event focusing on football is set to discuss club ownership, player welfare, coaching and football agents in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, February 19-20, 2018.
The organisers of the event known as Football Africa Forum (FAF) say its aims are to become Africa’s biggest football-stakeholder and knowledge-sharing platform to debate the future of football on the continent.
FAF “will kick of with a debate on the role of Government in sustaining the development of football and lessons from other developing countries where the sport has been prioritised over all others due to the low-cost investment required from the state to support the continued growth of football,” says Gerrit Davids, the Chief Executive Officer of Gerom Media, Sports & Entertainment (Pty) Ltd that is behind FAF.”Government officials and football administrators will exchange their thought leadership on the ‘how to’ of continuing to build football at grassroots level.”
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The aspect of ‘private club ownership’ being a major conversation in Africa as many countries are following the route of the rest of the world in ‘corporatising’ their clubs for increased commercial benefits, Davids says, FAF “will present a full panel discussion on the options available to clubs in Africa to turn their clubs into greater commercial brands by going the ‘private ownership’ route.”
The Forum is expected to host the “Elite Coaches Seminar” to debate the future trends of coaching, feature a “Football Player Session” on the welfare of players, focus on the aspect of financial support and pension schemes, establish a West African chapter of the African Football Intermediaries Association (AFIA) and launch the African Academies Tournament for U17s.
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Davids says the Under 17 Tournament, that will feature 32 teams from the six African football regions with scouts from all over the world invited to attend the event, will take place in South Africa, October 1-6, 2018.
