1st Edition

Africa’s Elite Football Structure, Politics, and Everyday Challenges

Edited By Chuka Onwumechili Copyright 2020
    286 Pages
    by Routledge

    286 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book explores various aspects of intranational elite football in Africa, drawing on the expertise of notable scholars from across the world.

    Africa’s Elite Football focuses on an area largely ignored by current scholarship on African football, where interest has focused on international migration. In exploring the intranational, the book is written in two parts. The first is a general focus on the continent, and the second is an examination of country cases. The general focus of the book is on the nature of elite tier leagues, the relationship between politics and football, the media, youth academies, intranational migration and fans. Notably, chapters on topics such as intranational migration present groundbreaking scholarship in this area. Currently, football discourses on migration focus on international migration of footballers, yet the majority of migration in African football is intranational. Thus, by addressing the intranational, this book brings attention to an area that is underrepresented in the current academic discourse. The second part of the book, which focuses on country cases, covers Botswana, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The topics explored in those cases include religiosity, health, women’s football, media and management. The coverage of health-related issues is particularly important given that several books on African football rarely broach such a topic.

    With its unique approach to African football, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of sports history, African studies, politics in sports and African sports.

    Part 1: General Issues in African Football 

    1. The Structure and Nature of Professional Elite Leagues in Africa
    Chuka Onwumechili 

    2. The State, Fans and Football Politics
    Chuka Onwumechili, Totty O. Totty 

    3. Elite Local Leagues and Transnational Broadcast of European Football
    Unwana Samuel Akpan 

    4. The Rise of Football Academies
    Chuka Onwumechili and Jason Perry 

    5. Socioeconomic Analysis of African Footballers’ Migration to Europe: Elements for Decision Making based on the West African Case
    Ernest Y. Acheampong, Malek Bouhaouala and Michel Raspaud 

    6. Intra-National Football Migrations and Impact
    Chuka Onwumechili and Unwana Samuel Akpan 

    7. Globalization of Football Match Fixing: Experiences from Africa
    Manase Kudzai Chiweshe 

    8. Culture of Magic and Sorcery in African Football
    Simiyu Njororai 

    9. African Fandom: From Cape Town to Cairo
    Chuka Onwumechili 

    Part 2: Country Cases 

    10. From Ethnic Community to a Popular Culture: The Case of Gor Mahia Football Fandom in Kenya
    Solomon Waliaula and Joseph Basil Okong’o 

    11. Egypt: Encountering an Infusion of Middle East Cash
    Chuka Onwumechili 

    12. Nigeria: Women Football League and Struggle for Survival
    Chuka Onwumechili and Mark Beckford 

    13. What Model for Football Club Management in Africa? A Case Study of Two Football Teams in Senegal
    Gerard Akindes 

    14. Mediatization of Zimbabwe’s Professional Football League Management Style and Intellectual Property Rights in Crisis Times
    Lyton Ncube and Nhamo Anthony Mhiripiri 

    15. The Magical Economy of the Botswana Local Football League
    Jimoh Shehu 

    16. Religiosity in African Football: ‘Magic’ and Christianity in the Zambian Game in Colonial and Modern Times
    Hikabwa D. Chipande, Nelly Mwale and Joseph Chita 

    17. Nigeria: Health and Medical Issues in Elite Football
    Babatunde Akinbinu, Ayomide Olabode, and Chukwuemeka Emmanuel Agi 

    Biography

    Chuka Onwumechili is Professor of Communications in the Strategic, Legal and Management Department at Howard University, Washington D.C., United States of America.