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Contributions from
the Column
Focus
Soccer enthusiasts in Latin America
Soccer World Cup: Togo’s top athletes
Why African museums struggle
„Mosambicans love plays“
Visual media and sports in India
06/2006
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Great bargaining power
Togolese people forget their troubles when their national team wins matches at an international level. The footballers of this small African country have qualified for the World Cup for the first time. Their success has economic and political repercussions. For many young people, the athletes serve as role models.
[ By Joseph Müller Afanyagbe ]
Football is a source of feverish dreams from Senegal to Somalia, from Algeria to South Africa. Football brings people together and strengthens their sense of national belonging. Togo has recently witnessed this phenomenon. Our country is small, only a narrow stretch of land between Ghana and Benin. Nonetheless, Togo has gone through political troubles and violence. However, people forgot their rancour when the national team – fondly called “Les Eperviers” (“the Hawks”) – played matches relevant for World Cup qualification.
At times, we need to treat ourselves to the goodies of live, no matter what difficulties we are going through. In this sense, Football provides great entertainment. It helps people to forget their worries for a while, and brings excitement to their lives. The public in Togo is interested in the game – but it wants it to be played fair. One of the attractions of televised sports, after all, is that cheating is very difficult. Everyone sitting in front of a TV screen can see for themselves what is going on on the soccer field.
Every single one of our team’s victories became a happy occasion for celebration. People were ready to disregard what otherwise might divide them. They sang along and enjoyed partying together. Togo’s team will take part in the World Cup for the first time in Germany. This qualification is its greatest success so far, and the nation takes pride in it. Hardly a Togolese will forget the run-up of matches that led to the event.
The sense of enthusiasm also has a commercial dimension. Yellow-designed articles with the symbol of the national team are highly fashionable. The Fédération Togolaise de Football (FTF), a national association, is trying to stop others from using its by now highly profitable logo. However, it is proving very difficult to enforce the FTF’s formal intellectual-property rights. After all, many people are eager to display their support for the national team. Indeed, there are many entrepreneurs who are trying to cash in on this excitement – and not necessarily with an official licence.
The World Cup and all related events enjoy extensive media coverage. In a similar way, the African Cup, which was hosted by Egypt earlier this year, attracted wide attention in Togo. Sport FM, a privately owned radio station, and other media have done their very best to boost support for the Hawks. That kind of promotion, of course, serves almost like a showroom for yellow sportswear.
The football federation was founded in 1960. Today, it is headed by Rock Gnassingbe, the brother of President Faure Gnassingbe. Both are sons of Eyadéma Gnassingbe, who was Togo’s president for many years. Faure Gnassingbe’s election was lately a cause of turmoil, the fairness of the polls was disputed and security forces cracked down on protests.
Today, the government is not overly worried about FTF copyrights. It wants the team to succeed and is in favour of the enthusiasm the soccer players have generated. The government has therefore come up in support of the team, and asked wealthy individuals and firms to sponsor it.
Doing so was necessary, as earlier this year our sports stars demanded more money then they had previously been paid. They threatened to no longer compete, unless their funding went up. Their action was a proof of sports stars having great bargaining power – not only in relation to their employers in rich country, but also vis à vis the Togolese establishment.
More money abroad
In everyday life, many people identify with top stars who play in Europe. Successful athletes serve as role models. Many poor children dream of pulling up their families from poverty. Everybody knows the names of the many successful players from Africa: Jay Jay Okocha from Nigeria, Khalilou Fadiga from Senegal, Samuel E’eto from Cameroon and Didier Drogba from Côte d’Ivoire. In Togo, people are of course, particularly proud of our compatriot Adebayor Sheyi, who is playing for Arsenal in London. Together with his comrades in the national team, he has made dreams come true by qualifying for the contest in Germany. Togolese people feel grateful to these athletes and consider them a source of common joy.
Africans, however, are also aware of the spectacular performance – in athletic as well as financial terms – of Brazilian players in rich countries. They would like to be like Ronaldo or Ronaldinho and others who found their way from playing on the streets to becoming stars in the world’s most famous stadiums.
By the way, soccer idols are not the only sportsmen to migrate from Africa. For instance, the Togolese – and African – champion in table tennis, Agbetoglo Mawussi, is playing for a French team in Alsace. Athletes like him set examples and motivate people to migrate to wealthy countries – and not only to compete in sports. For many, any kind of employment, even illegal jobs, seem promising.
However, sports fever can also lead to migration in the other direction. The Hawks’ coach is Otto Pfister, a German, who studied at the Sporthochschule of his hometown Cologne. He has worked in other African countries before – coaching national teams for Senegal, Côte D’Ivoire and Ghana. In 1992, he was awarded the title of “Coach of the year” in Africa.
Overall, however, soccer remains a domestic affair in Togo. The top league is composed of fifteen teams. Only few of them are professional, for instance, Maranatha FC, this year’s national champion. This team even employs two athletes from Ghana, Leonard Adjima and Pierre Kpesse. Some other teams also rely on a paid sportsman or two from abroad. Most clubs, however, do not have the money to invest heavily, and, accordingly, the athletic quality of Togo’s top league is not very great. But of course, most football fans will support Maranatha, when it competes in Africa’s champions league next year. They will similarly hold their thumbs for AC Togo Port, the winner of this year’s national cup, when the team plays in the CAF Cup next year.
Club presidents are of great relevance. They spend their own money. Gabriel Ameyi, the president of Maranatha, has even payed for buses, in order to take supporters of the team along when it plays against competitors in distant towns. But not only clubs’ finances matters – so do their world views. The motto of Maranatha FC, for instance, is “Come back soon, Jesus”. All members of the team accept the rule of praying daily, they do so as a group.
Some fans – and some athletes, too – hope that magical practices may help their teams win. Most Togolese, however, would probably agree that physical exercise will contribute more to that aim. Or, some would sadly add, a handsome bribe to the opposing team.
Joseph Müller Afanyagbe
is programme-director of Sport FM in Lomé, Togo’s capital city.
jmasfm@yahoo.fr
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