In Episode 47 of the Because Football Podcast, we invite Sports Management professor and research Dr. Gerard Akindes to give his insight about football in Africa. He gives his opinion on why AFCON is “not African Football”, how most domestic African leagues have lost their cultural relevance and quality, and who started the trend of West African players migrating to Southeast Asia to play professionally.
We also discuss the African Super League, how he used to watch the World Cup (days and weeks after each match) as a child in a cinema in his home country of Benin, and the time he saw a young Diego Maradona play for Boca Juniors in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
It’s a lengthy episode, but his perspectives on African football’s challenges and potential successes are fresh and eye-opening. His experience goes deeper than the superstars of the game that we all know, and offers more nuance than the default messages that mainstream media portrays about the beautiful game on the continent.
Dr. Gerard A. Akindes combines a wealth of experience in sports as an athlete and coach, a former manager of a sportswear company, a scholar, and a researcher. Hecaptained the Benin basketball national team as an athlete and played semi-professional basketball. He coached youth, women, and men’s basketball in Belgium.
He worked in Qatar for several years as a research and insight senior manager for the Josoor Institute, a legacy program of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Before moving toQatar, Gerard taught sport management and sports and development in the Department of Sports Administration at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.
Akindes is adjunct faculty at Northwestern University, Qatar, and New York University, New York. His academic publications focus on international sports management,broadcasting, and elite athletes’ mobility and migration. He co-edited two books, “Identities, politics and Football in Africa” and “Sports in Africa, Past and Present.” Akindes is also a sports management consultant for sports organizations. He mentored the National Paralympic Committees of the Central African Republic and Burkina Faso. He is co-founder and coordinator of SportsAfrica Network’s conferences, webinars, and the Interdisciplinary Electronic Journal of African Sports Ohio University, Impumelelo.
Connect with Dr. Gerard Akindes:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerard-akindes/
https://www.instagram.com/gaakindes/
Find out more about Because Football
https://www.linkedin.com/in/baggaleyandrew/
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