This article analyzes one of the key features of the increased trading in African football labor since the 1990s, the establishment of football "academies" in Africa. The article begins by setting out a broad explanatory framework that articulates the transit of African footballers to Europe and the role of football academies in this process as a form of neocolonial exploitation and impoverishment of the developing world by the developed world. A brief account of the history, geography, economics, and consequences of African football talent migration to Europe follows. The main focus of the article is the construction of a typology of football academies in Africa and an analysis of their role in the export of African football labor. The article concludes by analyzing the key challenges that the growth of football academies has posed for the African game and outlines ways that these challenges might be addressed.
The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. This article addresses the urgent need for critical analysis of the relationships between sport and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) enshrined in the United Nations' global development framework, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Importantly, there has yet to be any substantial academic exploration of the implications of the position accorded to sport as 'an important enabler' of the aims of 2030 Agenda and its broad set of SDGs. In beginning to address this gap, we draw on the concept of policy coherence for two reasons. Firstly, the designation of a specific SDG Target for policy coherence is recognition of its centrality in working towards SDGs that are considered as 'integrated and indivisible'. Secondly, the concept of policy coherence is centred on a dualism that enables holistic examination of both synergies through which the contribution of sport to the SDGs can be enhanced as well as incoherencies by which sport may detract from such outcomes. Our analysis progresses through three examples that focus on the common orientation of the Sport for Development and Peace 'movement' towards education-orientated objectives aligned with SDG 4; potential synergies between sport participation policies and the SDG 3 Target for reducing non-communicable diseases; and practices within professional football in relation to several migration-related SDG Targets. These examples show the relevance of the SDGs across diverse sectors of the sport industry and illustrate complexities within and across countries that make pursuit of comprehensive policy coherence infeasible. Nevertheless, our analyses lead us to encourage both policy makers and researchers to continue to utilise the concept of policy coherence as a valuable lens to identify and consider factors that may enable and constrain various potential contributions of sport to a range of SDGs.
The squad rosters of the participating teams at recent editions of the biennial African Cup of Nations reveals that the majority of Africa's elite football players ply their trade in Europe and that this is a trend that is increasing year by year. For example, at the 2000 tournament cohosted by Ghana and Nigeria, just over 50 percent of the players were signed to a European club. For the 2002 competition in Mali, this figure had increased to 66 percent and for the 2004 edition in Tunisia it stood at 67 percent. Although the exodus of Africa's football talent to Europe has accelerated significantly since the early 1990s, it is important to recognize that this process has long historical roots. This article examines the changing patterns in the transit of African footballers to Europe and demonstrates the ways in which these patterns have been underpinned by broader developments within the political economy of world football.
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