UNLOCKING THE CHALLENGES OF THE ETHIOPIAN FOOTBALL

YOHANNES GERESELLASIE (Ph.d)  ADDIS ABABA

June 10, 2019

Football: The beautiful game as it is popularly called is the most popular and the most widely watched sport in the world. It is also by nature and as a definition a peaceful and descent sport. Everybody anywhere enjoys playing or watching football and every child almost anywhere grows up playing football irrespective of gender, race, religion, culture and tradition. The Ethiopian people just like other people anywhere love playing or watching football and at times, Ethiopians are crazy about football. Ethiopia has a long tradition of playing the game of football; in fact, Ethiopia can be called as one of the pioneers of this game in Africa. One may at this point in time racall that there were great teams in Ethiopia during the fifties and sixties known as St. George, Tidel, Cotton, Cement, Mechal, Tele, Elpa, Airline, etc. They were among the top teams in Ethiopia and even in Africa.

One may also recall Ato Yednekachew Tessema who was a member and founder of the Ethiopian and African Football Federation. He made a huge difference in getting the Ethiopian football to the next level using his football knowledge, skill and football management. What a great accomplishment. Unlike today, Ethiopia, during his time produced great football clubs and great players: All had great competitors within the national and international arena and all those previous teams in Ethiopia were good news to Ethiopia because they contributed to the overall football development of the nation and they were a strong national team who were able to compete with the rest of the African regional and continental teams. They also won two African cups. Currently, different football clubs from across the nation have made it to the premier league and they have been supported by the government through the Ministry of Youth and Sport and have been encouraged by the public at large in order to enhance their performances at the local, national and international football competitions and in order to make them national, regional and international competitors in every way, shape or form. It is simply unfortunate that the level of performance of our current football clubs is way below one can consider and one can imagine and their performances have become an embarrassment both to the government and the public at large. As a result, something has to be done to find out what went wrong over the years and something has to be done to fix it and correct it. Something truly bold and radical action has to be taken in order to come up with the right and sustainable solution. Few days back, the Ethiopian football federation has taken a bold and correct action ending the premier league’s competition for unlimited time due to their and their supporters’ wrong, non-sporting, unhealthy and non-conducive environment regularly created within and outside stadiums by different premier league clubs and their supporters.

I believe with scientific, proper and visionary management, the Ethiopian Football Federation can and must come up with good and sustainable solutions and develop the way forward to improve the already loosing football clubs of our nation. As this point in time, the Federation can also have to be very thankful to those who worked very hard and who gave full services: the coaches, the clubs, the administration staff and most importantly the public at large that gave full support for the development of the Ethiopian football over the years. Bringing back real football to Ethiopia irrespective which part of Ethiopia comes from and which club they belong to as long as they represent Ethiopia has to be and is of a paramount importance at this juncture. Therefore all stakeholders must participate in that regard. We must not discriminate one team or one club from the other. It is true and even quite natural that people support their teams and that is what football is all about; however, when it comes which team gets to the premier league, the pre-requisites, qualifications and standards put forward by the Ethiopian Football Federation and FIFA must be strictly adhered to and respected. We should be very happy and indeed celebrate having one or two of our clubs making it to the premier league each year regardless of which city they come from, however, the main agenda must be to have a solid, strong and disciplined National Football Team that will represent our nation in the international football arena.

In Ethiopia the presence and development of football has been manifested within the larger Ethiopian cities such as Addis Ababa, Diredawa, Mekelle, Baherdar, Jima etc. Ethiopian footballers have by and large arrived from big cities; therefore, they have markedly different socio-economic, cultural and political backgrounds. As a result, they have added colour to the spectrum of groups in Ethiopia, yet little is known about them. Therefore, some questions like the following must be addressed in order to help the Ethiopian Football Federation to evaluate and address the problems encountered and in order to unlock the challenges of the Ethiopian football.

Answering he following questions may help the Ethiopian Football Federation to address some of the challenges encountered.