ADDIS ABABA – In an unusual move the country’s football governing body, the Ethiopian football Federation, EFF, looks very much determined to establish the League Committee, LC, to run the Ethiopian Premier League football Club competition.
This has been the cry of the Ethiopian Football clubs officials for years. The issue has been raised time and again in the past, in particular, during the presidency of Dr. Ashebir Woldegiorgis some ten years ago. This time the EFF came up with the study how to handover the structure of organizing the league competition under the League Committee.
The study was made by Gezahegn Wolde, manager of the Addis Ababa Football Club. Well the study tries to cover the structural aspects of the league Committee and different EFF bodies. Comments on the deficiencies of the federation, inability to have strong and capable professionals in the office of the EFF. the weak link of each department with each other in EFF were included in the 140- page study paper. These comments are not new.
What was new was the willingness of the EFF to establish the League Committee and the lack of quick response from the clubs. It was little expected prior to the meeting that few club Presidents would appear for this meeting.
Judging from attendance, in fact to the surprise of the organizers, only five Premier League clubs Presidents appeared from the total of 16. The meeting took place in the presence of the EFF President Isayas Jirra and his deputy Colenol Awol. The international experience shows that League competition has been run by League Committee fully controlled by the participating clubs.
In the Ethiopian case, since the inception of club competition in 1943/44 season, the sole organizer of the game has been the federation. In the country’s current football format, will the League Committee make a difference? Can the League Committee capable of generating additional income? In short what will be the advantages of League Committee in the Ethiopian context? There are more questions than answers. All 16 Premier League clubs are directly or indirectly are state owned. The stadiums are the state property. There is no one club that has a stadium. So far the only and visible revenue has been generated from gate fee.
It is true that the sponsorship deal with breweries gives two clubs, St. George and Coffee additional income. There has never been TV sponsorship deal like it is in England. Even if that is the case, the sole ETV is also the state TV. Considering this all, except the ambition and aspiration, the League Committee is no different from the EFF as both swim within the embrace of the government. In Europe and elsewhere in the world football is market oriented.
The clubs are swimmers in this big business. The TV channels are private business medium. Under this circumstance, football is business that makes profit. The good part in Ethiopia is the active participation of the government in football. All clubs exist with the budget from the government coffer.
The budget is high as 15 to 25 million birr per year. Looking at this aspect of the country’s sport, the formation of the league Committee is unlikely to make a difference because it is not possible to generate income other than the budget given by the government. From this it is possible to conclude that the support of the government is huge for football. It is advisable to use the money in a proper and constructive way. At least the EFF in cooperation with the clubs must find out ways and means to avoid wastage of money through corruption. Good to give priority to minimize theft in football.
Herald January 22/2019
BY SOLOMON BEKELE
