football
Alex Duval Smith
In a world where a single transfer fee for a top football player could save the economy of a small country, it seems almost inconceivable for one of the poorest nations on the planet, Burkina Faso, to be organising a major soccer championship.
But as the African Nations Cup play-offs gather steam in this landlocked West African state where the encroaching Sahel makes even a scorched soccer pitch look verdant, donations are flooding into a public solidarity fund set up for the occasion.
Every evening, match reports on national television are interspersed with news clips of the latest gracious donors, each of whom is handed a framed diploma in recognition of his generosity. At the last count, the fund had raked in R16-million.
”We volunteered to have contributions taken out of our salaries every week for a year,” said a proud municipal policeman, slumped in front of a restaurant television set in the capital, Ouagadougou, last Sunday. He did not believe he was getting value for money out of title holders Bafana Bafana’s lacklustre 0-0 performance against Angola.
The 21st African Cup of Nations play-off, with matches in Ouagadougou and the country’s second city, Bobo-Dioulasso, have little in common with the 20th tournament, hosted in 1996 by South Africa.
“Everything worked like a dream in South Africa,” said Jean-Philippe Cointeaux, a reporter for the French sports daily L’Equipe. “Here it is chaos and all our accreditation papers have gone missing. But we feel closer to the soul of African football and its slightly haphazard, creative charm.”
Creativity is a necessity in Burkina Faso, which rivals neighbouring Mali as the world’s poorest nation. On the streets of Ouagadougou, market stall-holders of all descriptions have dreamt up tie-ins between their products and Fofo, the championship mascot.
There are woven Fofo chiefs’ hats (R16), embroidered Fofo tablecloths and napkins (R80), as well as purses, T-shirts, shorts, fabric for sale by the metre and batik- decorated postcards. Versions of the cheerful yellow character are so ubiquitous that no one has bothered to manufacture official merchandise.
The main sponsorship money has come from Elf, the French oil company, and Coca-Cola. But both are coy about the size of their contributions. Castle beer, Energiser batteries, Craven A cigarettes and Gillette are also present on hoardings.
But of the 16 countries qualified for the play-offs, Burkina Faso is probably the least of a footballing nation. Unlike Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana or Liberia, it has no soccer millionaires.
In the 1980s, the country’s late leader, Thomas Sankara, tried to share his passion for the sport with his people by giving every village a football. He passed a law compelling everyone to play twice a week and got the People’s Republic of China to build a 35 000-seat stadium in Ouagadougou. But the move failed to produce a Tony Yeboah, Roger Milla, Abedi Ayew Pele or George Weah.
Ticket sales – which only began last week in a bid to prevent touting – have been slow, despite affordable prices. None of the matches so far have played to a capacity crowd.
Sankara’s 35 000-seater stadium failed to fill up for the opening match last Saturday between Burkina Faso and Cameroon (0-1), despite a decision to let people in free once President Blaise Compaor had sat down.
The sale of television transmission rights has been handled by a French company, but has reportedly been slow. The income is unlikely to do much more than pay Burkina Faso’s debts to the Confederation of African Football and cover the rental of outside broadcast equipment.
Yet officials at the confederation believe Burkina Faso will break even. It will also reap valuable publicity in the run-up to the Organisation of African Unity summit in June, its crafts fair in October and next year’s Fespaco film festival.
And if so much as one foreign talent scout spots potential in a Burkinabe player and arranges for him to bought by a European club, the country could be on its way to its first soccer millionaire.