The 4th edition of African Nations Championship (CHAN 2016) is currently underway with 16 teams competing for the coveted trophy come February 7, 2016. The second biggest tournament on the continent gives a chance to players who exclusively play in their domestic leagues to play continental football.

Junior Binyam, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Media Director explained the importance of the tournament, gave insights on local league football and what the tournament means for Rwanda and Rwandans. Sunday Times’ Dean Karemera caught up with him and below are the excerpts.

CHAN is the second biggest tournament in the Africa, what favoured Rwanda to win the bid to host it?

The first thing we consider is if a country has hosted a lower competition. For Rwanda, in 2009 it hosted Under 20 and in 2011 it hosted Under 17, so it means the country already has the expertise to host such tournaments.

Secondly, we see if the bid has government support, a letter supporting the bid. This is because we know that a federation alone can’t host a tournament without the support of the government. Basing on that, we knew from previous experience that with Rwanda, when the government is involved things are done well and that is quite determinant.

So, I think the executive committee looked at these factors to choose Rwanda. Although in previous tournaments the teams were eight and this time around they are sixteen, but I think Rwanda has been able meet the standards that we are looking for when hosting such tournaments.

In the build up to CHAN, most people didn’t think we would be ready to host the tournament but the CAF organizing committee was optimistic that it would happen. Why did CAF believe so much in Rwanda?

It is the trust that CAF executive committee has in the Rwandan government. They know President Paul Kagame is a man of honour and if he says that CHAN is going to happen, there’s no way it won’t happen, so there’s no way they could have had any doubt.

I was part of the inspection committee that came to Rwanda last year in May, journalists thought the country was behind schedule but the president of CHAN organizing committee and the CAF president told them that they talked to President Kagame, when they came for the 20th Genocide commemoration against the Tutsi and he assured them that Rwanda will definitely not go back on its decision to host the tournament, so there was no fear.

And considering the experience from past competitions, everything that was promised was delivered on time.

Now that we have hosted CHAN, what are our chances of hosting the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON)?

I don’t think you need chances anymore, CHAN and AFCON are more less the same. Of course AFCON has bigger conditions considering that it’s our key tournament and that may require a big stadium at some point and we still have a regulation where we can’t play AFCON on an artificial turf which may take time to grow natural grass. But for all we have seen, there’s no big difference with the requirements needed to host AFCON because the teams are also sixteen.

AFCON has been awarded till 2023, the next edition open is 2025 which probably gives Rwanda time to prepare in case the government is willing to host it here. So, they have more or less ten years to prepare considering that it takes five years to prepare a bid. We have AFCON in 2017 in Gabon, 2019 in Cameroon, 2021 in Cote d’Ivoire and 2023 in Guinea. With 2025 open and basing on past experiences, infrastructure in place and technical know-how, Rwanda has all it takes to host AFCON.   

Any key areas we need to improve to host AFCON?

There are minor areas. Like having stadiums with natural turf but the rest such as security, transportation, hospitality, I.T…etc. Rwanda has all it takes to make it happen.

CHAN being a big tournament definitely attracts a lot of attention. Do we have any scouts in the country?

Scouts are not referenced by CAF but of course there are many of them. All the players in this tournament play within their local leagues and this is an opportunity for the players to show what they can do and the scouts are also on the look-out.  After here some of them will get better deals, we have seen this happen in South Africa where players who played in CHAN are playing elsewhere.

In regards to our local league, it is not well known beyond our borders, what can be done to build it and give it a strong presence?

By the way, this is not the case for Rwanda only but all countries and it’s one of the key fields that CAF is working on. CAF is working on a club licensing program to make sure that clubs comply with rules and regulations in regards to administration, infrastructure, marketing and general organization. It’s a process that starts at club level and if we have every club maintaining such standards, then we’ll have leagues that are better organized.

However, it also takes the African media as well. When you look at newspapers all over Africa, you will find that a lot of focus is given to European leagues without showing any importance of our local leagues. We forget that European leagues already have more than enough exposure, they don’t need us to give them more exposure. It will take African media to sell and expose our local leagues.  

We are fortunate enough that we have what it takes in terms of technology and telecommunications which can help us find out about other local leagues in Africa but if we continue to talk about European leagues, how do we expect people within our countries to take the local league seriously? We need to sell our local leagues because buying subscription to watch European leagues takes money out of the economy which could have benefited the local league. So, the media has an important part to play in regards to increasing the visibility of our local leagues.

Is this the reason why local leagues, particularly in Rwanda, don’t have club sponsors?

Exactly. Sponsors don’t come for charity purposes but for exposure. If they are sure, through the media that fans don’t watch local football, why should they sponsor any club?

Federations should work with clubs to ensure that there are structures to grow the local league and also to maintain the best players within the league before they leave to play for other clubs out of the country.

In Rwanda, you have your best players going to Tanzania, Kenya without much effort to keep them here. But it all comes down to keeping the fans interested in the local league.

For example, I was confused when I came to Rwanda last year in August and I was told that football games are played on Thursday and Friday because over the weekend, people are interested in European football. This is so sad. We can’t continue like this and expect sponsorship and investment in local football.

Although our league is not yet at a top level, we have players who have played outside Rwanda, what are the chances that CHAN will increase the presence of local players to the international market?

I think we should stop thinking that professionalism in football is about playing abroad. No! The CAF licensing program seeks to have professional local leagues. At CAF, we are trying to enforce professional clubs within our local leagues because mentally we are wired to think that professionalism starts for a player when they play outside their country. We want to ensure that players who are playing in local leagues stay within that league because it’s also professional.

But some people say that if players don’t move to other clubs, out of the country, upcoming players won’t get a chance to play. For example, some people say that unless a player like Emery Bayisenge plays out of the country, it is difficult for someone to take his place in the club.

It’s all about all about competition. There’s a time when African teams were constituted of local based players and they were not bad teams. In the 70’s, 80’s if you look at what Cameroon did at the World Cup in 1982 and Algeria, most of the players were based in the local league.

So, Keeping Bayisenge here doesn’t stop any other player to emerge but rather it will level the playing field because there will be strong competition. If there’s a way to keep the best players here, then it is good because it will strengthen the local league and improve the level of professionalism in the league. I don’t think having our players going abroad is the way to go. Why should a player move from Rwanda to play in Vietnam? Do you think the difference is that big or promising for an upcoming talented footballer? I don’t think so.

Speaking of which, footballers like Emery Bayisenge were groomed through the football academy. However, our academy is not active anymore, does it mean they are not important anymore?

As you know, even in life, there are people who are skillful and don’t need school but they end up going there.

So, with the academies, it is the same thing but the challenge is that there are no programs in place to keep it running. That’s why CAF has the coach licensing program so that those training upcoming players have the basics of knowing exactly what to do.

Football is becoming a big business and more young people are getting interested, before parents never approved of their children playing professional football but now, it’s the parents taking the children to play.

So, it will take structures but we can’t keep things the way they are, where someone just gets children, takes them to a field and starts training them. We need to invest, at the level of every member association, in academies because training is the way to go.

How many football coaches have been licensed through the program and how many Rwandan coaches have attended the program?

We have licensed more than 15,000 coaches in various categories, license A, license B and license C. I don’t know exactly the number of Rwandan coaches who have attended the program, I may need to find to out but I know there some who have attended. There’s also a license A course which will take place in the coming days during CHAN tournament.

Football associations have always been independent bodies but regionally we have seen government intervention, don’t you think this will hurt the game?

It has always been the stand of CAF and the President of CAF has continuously repeated the same thing; football in Africa can’t grow without the support of the government. That’s the reality because governments are the big sponsors of football tournaments.

Unless, the government wants to run the federation which has its own rules and regulations but overall, we need government support. I don’t think Rwanda would have hosted CHAN if it wasn’t for the government. The four stadiums being used for the tournament, three were not up to the standards we were looking for.

Basically, you can’t talk of football development in Africa without talking of government support. If federations breach their own regulations, that’s when FIFA bans the federation but I don’t think governments impose their own regulations on federations. Economically, Africa has its own unique situation, most teams participating in CHAN managed to travel with the help of their respective government.

FIFA has seen its fair share of scandals and there’s a feeling this will have an impact on the football game, should we worry?

No! I don’t think there’s any reason to worry. It’s an institution that has been in place since 1904, so it’s more than 100 years and that means that the foundation is really strong to be shaken. This is a small thing that happened because some people did bad things but the foundation is very solid.

By 25th February, there will be new reforms approved and a new president elected. In life, it takes mistakes to be better and we can only expect a better FIFA after this situation because the mistakes that were made will have been observed. We hope to get people with good behaviour and leadership.

Does CAF have any preferred candidate?  

Since August last year, CAF executive committee has said it is taking time to consider their choice very well putting into consideration the interests of Africa. That choice has not been made yet and we have more than a month to the elections. There’s no need to rush and CAF position will be known in due time.

Any challenges with CHAN so far?

They are minor challenges that have no effect on the game at all. There was a power outage the other day but that also happens in more developed countries.

For example, in Brazil, one of the World Cup stadiums in Sao Paulo which was to host one of the opening games collapsed one month prior to the first game and some provisions had to be made.

So, such organization comes with challenges but what is essential is that we can see that it has been a good tournament and I think, in regards to the games, this is so far the best CHAN we have had since its inception. We have some games that are way above the playing standards of AFCON and that should make us proud of what is being done in our local leagues.

What is your general experience with CHAN since it started?

When the idea was launched, most people were skeptical about it but today we have other continental football associations thinking about replicating the idea in their respective continents. They have realized that this is the only way to keep young players hopeful of great things to come in the future.

Basically, the general impression people have now is that CHAN is the way to go because even in economics, it is wrong to export raw materials without any economic transformation, so we have structures that will enable us not to send raw materials anymore.