Lessons for local game from World Cup

The World Cup, which started in Brazil on Thursday, has gripped the social fabric of virtually every nation around the world.

For the next one month, the dominant talk in social places, work places, streets and even churches — if Pope Francis’s call for divine intervention for the fiesta to unite the world, is any measure of its popularity — will be about their favourite teams and who are likely to win.

This is further confirmation that football is big business, likely on the same pedestal with politics and economics. This explains why the head of the world football governing body, Fifa, Sepp Blatter, is accorded presidential treatment around the world.

But if football is that big at the global stage, why don’t we feel the trickle effect in our region in general and our country in particular?

How can we tap into the global popularity and commercial potential of this fabulously rich industry to improve the lives of our youth?

Politics aside, President Kenyatta has sponsored our national team, Harambee Stars, to Brazil to partake of the global fiesta. Which is a good incentive to a team just starting qualification rounds for the Africa Nations Cup, although the ideal thing should have been to focus more on the youth sides as an investment for the future of the game rather than according a junket to players whose careers are either on the plateau or over the hill.

Back to serious business, there are huge opportunities that come with participating in a World Cup. One, players showcase their talent on the global stage and, consequently, attract potential employers. Two, participating countries have a whole month to use the global television to promote their images. On the court of international public relations, some countries hitherto known for all the wrong reasons like Bosnia and Herzegovina are hogging global publicity with the Vatican on equal terms.

Lastly, the youth of those countries have something to look up to for their future — they have a dream. They, too, have been to the World Cup by representation.

Here, football is more a way for some people to engage in self-aggrandisement, or to gain popularity as a stepping stone to political office. In fact, the less said about them, the better.

Our football has been for the past decade crisis-ridden, controversy-laden, lethargic, and always stuttering. Winning the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup, a tournament we used to dominate at club and national level two decades ago, is not enough reason to start to celebrate.

We need our boys in the continental stage. Which is reason for our national leaders, who hold the purse strings, to help promote football and other sports that require heavy financial input as a way to alleviate poverty.

So as we celebrate and enjoy ourselves in our residences and social places and shout ourselves hoarse for the next one month, we must take a hard look at the future of our talented and think of providing them with safety nets. It is all about good governance and accountability as a first step towards attracting corporate leverage.

However, there are a few positive things about Kenyan football anyway, like the Kenyan Premier League, which soldiers on despite muted attempts to tame hooliganism and pilferage at the turnstiles.

The sooner they professionalise the game fully and its key drivers like refereeing and security, the better for the game.

We need professional security, who don’t go to the stadium to enjoy the game, but to secure the game.

Why can’t we see how enjoyable the game is at the World Cup and apply the same rules here? This is a game to be enjoyed by the family, but in Kenya, it is still, by and large, a high-risk game where one only takes the young and female members of the family at his own peril.

When put to task to lay down plans to tame hooliganism, the public keep hearing the old tired refrain “tunaomba serikali … (we request the government to handle security etc). The World Cup should provide food for thought for our local game.