Tuesday Talk - Future of All-Africa Games Takes Shape

(ATR) Diamil Faye, president of African sports management firm JAPPO, tells Around the Rings the future of the All-Africa Games is bright following a recent responsibility shift.

Faye sat down with ATR at the IOC’s inaugural "Bidding for the Games" seminar last month in Lausanne. He was there with a delegation from Abuja, Nigeria currently considering a try for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.

Few people are as well-connected with the Olympic Movement in Africa as Faye. He regularly travels the globe promoting African sports at various events, and his company also organizes the annual CISA convention for African Olympic and sport leaders.

Around the Rings: There was a meeting to discuss the future of the All-Africa Games during the 2011 edition in Maputo, Mozambique. What’s the latest with that?

Diamil Faye: Basically, there was a two-day "experts meeting" with roughly 20 different sports ministers from Africa. The IOC was present, and there were about 10 other African sports experts. I was invited, and we talked about the pros and cons of the All-Africa Games.

At the end, there was a recommendation that the Games should be transferred to ANOCA from the next Games on in 2015. Therefore, a memorandum of understanding between the African Union, which owns the Games, and ANOCA, which would now be responsible for the cooperation, [was signed] and then confirmed at the meeting of the ministers two days later.

ANOCA now needs to put together the framework of how this is going to be run and coordinated for the benefit for Africa and for sports in general.

ATR: What will this change bring?

DF: You will be surprised to know that the All-Africa Games for the last two or three editions had no proper bidding system. Basically, it was "Who wants the Games? OK, not you. OK, you take it." And on that ground, we saw that Zambia failed to host the Games and Mozambique was called at the last minute, and the continent can’t function like that.

The Games have to create some legacy for the athletes and for countries in terms of building some new sports installation and bringing the money in sponsorship marketing and so on. I think that’s the focus now that ANOCA needs to put together and make sure that [the Games] are in a place in which athletes can compete.

The 2011 Games were happening three days after the [athletics] world championship in Daegu, which is crazy.

We also noticed that most of the sports in the All-Africa Games are not qualifying events for the Olympic Games, and that needs to change. We have to build friendship with the continental federations and the IFs to make sure that African athletes will come to the Games, and they will compete at real international standards. When they tell you the bus will leave at 10 o’clock for your training, it will leave at 10 o’clock, and when they say the competition will start at two, it will start at two.

ATR: So it sounds like this will overall be good for the Games?

DF: Yes, it sounds like it. But now the work has to start because it’s kind of like an empty bag, and we need to put things inside the bag, and we’re going to put good things inside the bag.

There should be real policy guiding these Games, including how to win and how to organize them. It should be the first operation between ANOCA and the African sports federations.

ATR: If ANOCA takes over the All-Africa Games, what does that mean for the Supreme Council of Sport for Africa?

DF: Well, the Supreme Council of Sport for Africa should be over by January.

One of the decisions of the meeting was to convene a meeting in January in Abuja, Nigeria to sort of declare the end of the Supreme Council of Sport in Africa. There is a new body from the African Union that is going to be created, the Council for Sport.

There was a big debate on whether the Council for Sport will be involved with the Games or should just be doing other things, and we realized they should be working on programs and working with the United Nations and Sport for All programsand sport for peace and sports policy from the different ministries rather than getting involved in the running of the All-Africa Games

ATR: It sounds like Africa’s entire sporting landscape from an organizational standpoint is going to be very different very soon?

DF: That is exactly right, but now there is a need for people to sit down very quickly because 2015 is around the corner. We’ll find out well if Congo can do the Games properly. We may find out that Congo could have some challenges. That’s the reason why we and even ANOCA need to initiate the process very quickly.

ATR: Are you now confident in the future success of the Games?

DF: I’m confident provided that ANOCA takes the lead now. I don’t think ANOCA can do worse than what has happened already, but they have to prove that the way ANOCA is going to be running the Games is going to be different than the way that people have been running the Games before.

I mean, look at the first All-Africa Youth Games that was organized in 2010. I cannot say that it was a model in terms of running Games, but there was a village that was running comfortably, there was a transportation system, competent schedules and so on. I feel that it was a learning experience for those who were there, which it has to be to improve theorganization of the Africa Games.

ATR: Are big multi-sport events what Africa needs?

DF: To me, there are two levels. If you look at the history of the All-Africa Games, you get Egypt, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Kenya and so on in the same company. There are the same countries that organize the Games once or twice, and the number of cities that are hosting the Games is not growing.

To me, the All-Africa Games is not something that is affordable to all African countries. Therefore, I think there is a need to develop some regional games like the Asians have done with the Southeast Asian Games and the East Asian Games, which gives the opportunity to other cities and other countries to learn from a lower perspective and lower-size games and learn about games operations and learn about also developing their sports because when you’re hosting, you want to be everywhere and once you have a mastery of that kind of small-level games, you are going to be able to host the All-Africa Games.

Having the African Youth Games, regional games and the All-Africa Games I think is a kind of good three-step process ANOCA should build on to make sure that there is progress in what we are doing as well as a learning process for every NOC and every country in the continent to go into something we aren’t used to.

ATR: How did the IOC bidding seminar go for you and Abuja 2018? How do you rate their chances at winning the Youth Olympic Games?

DF: For all the guys that were here with me, it was good for them to sit down and listen not only inside the room but also during coffee breaks and get a feeling of what their chances are.

I do believe that Abuja would have a strong chance to host the Youth Olympic Games if we decided to officially go forward with the bid. The country has bid before for the Commonwealth Games. That was a good bid. It was a tough race, they learned, they made some mistakes and so on.

Yes, the Youth Olympic Games are not the Commonwealth Games. They know now what a bid process is, and now I can go back with them, debrief and from there I think there will be an official word from the authorities confirming whether they are going to be bidding for 2018 or not, but I think they do stand a strong chance.

When [Rio 2016 president] Carlos Nuzman was showing a map [of the Olympics heading to South America for the first time], today the map is still not complete because they still don’t have Africa, and I think the YOG is perfect for Africa and a good starting point for Africa to think about the Olympic Movement.

Interview conducted by Ed Hula III.

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