Club soccer in Africa is still very much a developing world. Nearly every nation in Africa has some sort of organized pro soccer league, but very few of them even remotely resemble the established leagues of Europe and the Americas. Obviously, the strength of the domestic soccer leagues in Africa varies depending on many factors including geography, economic strength, and political stability. For the purpose of this blog we will focus on the top African teams going into the 2014 World Cup (based on October 2013 FIFA rankings), including Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, and Nigeria, as well as Egypt who has been dominant in the CAF Champions League. While these nations may not be representative of all of African soccer they are the premier soccer-playing nations of Africa.
Almost Equal in the CAF
The Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, and Nigeria have similarly developed domestic soccer leagues. They each have a national football federation with either two or three divisions. It is difficult to tell the relative strength of these leagues due to the lack of direct competition between them. The CAF Champions League is a competition in which the champion of every African soccer league competes. The results of this competition over the last ten years have provided very little insight into the strength of the respective leagues as only a Nigeria team (Enyimba International) has won the championship (’03 and ‘04). However, the Egyptian team, Al Ahly, has been dominant, winning 4 times in the past 10 years (’05, ’06, ’08 and ’12) [1] This shows, if anything, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, and Nigeria are relatively equal on the playing field. The following video shows highlights from the 2012 CAF Champions League.
Media Coverage
Financially and commercially, it appears that these leagues are similar as well. In 2009, only Ghana had ever had a television partner [2]; however, in the past 4 years, the top leagues in Nigeria and Algeria have also signed deals over broadcasting rights. In September 2013, the South African company SuperSport secured the rights to the Ghana Premier League. Though financial details were not disclosed, it was expected to be an improvement of $1.05 million over Optimum Media Prime’s previous $1.2 million agreement, 3 years ago. Just one month earlier, SuperSport signed a 4-year TV deal with the Nigeria Premier League for $34 million [3]. In August 2013, EPTV acquired the rights for Algeria’s Ligue 1 for the 2013-2014 season for $5.2 million. The Ivory Coast’s Ligue 1 is the only league in the group without a television partner, and they must make due with local stations such as Abidjan TV airing matches [4].
While media coverage of African club leagues has improved in recent years, financial returns on broadcasting rights are nowhere near the massive dividends that European leagues reap from fierce competitions between major TV companies. In August, NBC paid $250 million dollars to win US broadcast rights to the EPL over the next three years [5]. While a goal should be to build the coverage and financial resources of African media companies, it is clear that they would have trouble competing with international broadcasting giants. The problem of media in African soccer reflects the state of the sport on the majority of the continent, growing, but eons away from the reaching the same level of development in Europe and South America.
Click here to go back to the main “Economics of African Soccer” page.
[1] Orange CAF League Champions
[2] FA invites bids for TV rights
[3] SuperSport TV signs deal with Ghana Premier League
[4] Abidjan TV
