I can hardly stop praising football as it is played in Europe whenever their organisers and teams display absolute sportsmanship. They are always focused on what will make the game interesting to all.
I watched in awe the kind of show put up by Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday. I had not even seen the other Spain versus Germany game coming through the colours of Barcelona and Bayern Munich but I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. And I was not even though Barcelona fans were. Over there, the battle is not over until it is over. So why wouldn't anybody invest his money in such an enterprise?
Turn the picture to Africa and it is a case of protests and disqualifications. Neither the organisers nor the teams consider the fans and investors in the game here. In our own Champions League games are hardly won on the pitch of play; we intimidate opponents right from the airport such that all they think of is how to get back home safely. At the end of it all a team wins but hardly the fans of the game and the sponsors.
Even though the teams from Spain were heavily put down by the number of goals they conceded in the first legs, we were all sure that they won't go down without a fight. It is that confidence the fans and marketers have in the system that has kept the league growing bigger. When the Italian League became so much of match fixing trials and arrests, fans and investors began to turn elsewhere. Now you have to do the extra to sell the Italian league games whereas little is needed for the English and Spanish Leagues. The German League that was looking archaic gradually repackaged and now it is very attractive to follow and the big players and coaches are now also looking in that direction. Would it be strange seeing how well they have done in the Champions League this term? Well, not at all.
I do hope that the old men in Confederation of Africa Football will think more in selling the game than perpetuating themselves and their cronies in power.
