Since its outbreak in Wuhan, China, last december, the coronavirus pandemic continues to sweep across the world, ravaging economies, forcing suspensions, postponements and outright cancellations of sporting events.
This year had a tight and high profile events including the Olympics, Africa Women’s Cup of Nations, European Championships, African Athletics championship, the CHAN tournament and Euro 2020 among others but all have has instead become a series of blank weeks and months as events succumbed to postponements and cancellations.football doctor
Absence of live sports mean that coaches, clubs and federations have seen the money pot dry up especially in Africa where football is the most popular sport.
Kenya Premier League – one of the top leagues in East Africa, 50% of its footballers earn an average monthly salary of $200 (Sh20, 000), most players dependent on match bonuses, travelling allowance and winning bonuses all of which are now missing and an addition to the ‘financial injury’ suffered after the exit of league sponsors like SportPesa.
Some KPL players do not earn a monthly wage at all but earn by having jobs with the company that owns the club they play for but as the pandemic continues to bite, some of this companies are themselves struggling to stay afloat.
Monthly wages for players are roughly similar in Kenya and Cameroon, but Cameroon has protection of a guideline that has standardized a minimum wage at $200 a month.
Coton Sport, the only government-run club in Cameroon’s premier league have had theirs admit players admit that things are shaky like in Kenya because tickets and other match-day fan payments that form high percentage of club revenues are now missing.
A part from taking pay cuts, players also have to deal with the effect on their mental health – impacted by money worries and the general anxiety about the killer virus.
Women’s football has also been hit with clubs in South Africa and north Africa, which usually pay much higher salaries compared to the rest of the continent, are also deep in the challenges posed by Covid-19.
Egyptian top clubs like El Gouna, Arab Contractors and Pyramids have announced a pay cut for their players as Smouha reported that their coach will take a 50% reduced salary.
This comes as the Egypt’s Ministry of Sports Ministry emphasized that the country’s elite clubs elite clubs like AL Ahly need to financially help out those who are struggling in the lower divisions.
Al Ahly have embarked on pay cuts due to a lack of games and their losses have shown no hope of ending soon despite their presence in the semi-finals of the postponed Caf Champions League.
Postponment has hit many CAF competitions including the Africa Cup of Nations, Women’s U-17 and U-20 World Cup tournaments.
Female footballers in Africa earn an average of $100 (Sh10,600) a month or less which has forced most of them to enroll in higher education centres or in a second job just to get by.
Though football players across the world have been requested or forced to take pay cuts in a bid to contain the devastating effects of the outbreak and cushion the issues.africa-leads-calls-for-debt-relief-in-face-of-coronavirus-crisis
World football’s governing body Fifa has announced an emergency relief fund to distribute the full amount of ‘’the second part of member association operational costs, with aims to alleviate immediate financial problems’’.
Football associations in Africa have already taken advantage of this. Sierra Leone Football Association, for example, have donated around US$67,500 to the Premier League, Division One and Division Two clubs in the country as solidarity amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
US$42,000 will go to Premier League clubs while US$25,500 will go to clubs in lower tiers.
Egyptian Football Association has also launched an initiative to raise funds for players in third and fourth divisions while South Africa has set aside an $8 million relief fund for athletes and artists.
But Fifa has some good news for struggling ferderations like FKF after it announced todat that it will disburse Sh52 million to Football Kenya Federation (FKF) ‘in the next few days to mitigate the financial impact of the coronavirus.
Fifa’s statement also confirmed that all of its 211 will benefit from the fund to a tune of Sh1.5 billion.
