A conversation with Gerard Akindès, one of a handful of leading scholars on the business of sports in Africa. Before becoming an academic – he teaches at various universities in the United States, England and Qatar – Gerard was an athlete and coach, a former manager of a sportswear company. He captained the Benin basketball national team as an athlete and played semi-professional basketball.
After moving away from the field, he authored academic publications with a focus on international sports management, broadcasting, and elite athletes’ mobility and migration. He co-edited two books, “Identities, politics and Football in Africa” and “Sports in Africa, Past and Present.” Akindes is also a sports management consultant for sports organizations. He is co-founder and coordinator of SportsAfrica Network’s conferences, webinars, and the Interdisciplinary Electronic Journal of African Sports Ohio University, Impumelelo.
* The history of televising the FIFA World Cup,* The role that Telstar and technology played in globalizing world cup broadcasting,
* The value of radio as a sports broadcasting media for World Cups, and
* His prediction of a drastic increase in the value of FIFA World Cup broadcasting and media rights ahead of the 2026 World Cup in the US, Mexico, and Canada.
Listen to the Africa Business of Sports Podcast on:
Apple Podcasts: https://anchor.fm/africabusinessofsportpod/episodes/E17-Media-Rights-and-Broadcasting-of-the-World-Cup—Dr-Gerard-Akindes-e1omoiq
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7w0LhCYNkxucEYlo4JQf40
Author: Africa Sports Unified
Released Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2021
Dr. Gerard Akindes discusses his experience playing and coaching basketball in West Africa and Europe and the new Basketball Africa League. He considers the role of “electronic colonialism” in the sports media landscape and then reflects on his work advancing African scholarship through research publications and through Sports Africa, a coordinate organization of the U.S. African Studies Association that he co-founded in 2004.
Episode 216: The Underbelly of Global Football Academies
In this episode, Amira Rose Davis and Brenda Elsey start the show with their favorite football/soccer chants. Then, the historians talk in-depth about global football academies and the intentional invisibility of what goes on at them, which is exploitation, child labor, racial abuse and sex trafficking veiled as a school. They also discuss who is benefiting from this system and why reform is so slow and difficult. You’ll also hear from African football scholar Gerard Akindes.
Following this discussion is an interview tease with journalist Chloe Angyal, author of Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself. Next, they burn the worst of sports this week in the Burn Pile. Then, they celebrate the Torchbearers of the week including many Paralympians breaking barriers right now as well as Torchbearer of the Week Kali Reis, a Cape Verdean and Native American boxer who recently took the WBA junior welterweight championship, and who used her victory to raise awareness about the terror of residential schools for Indigenous youth and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
They wrap up the show with what’s good in their lives and they they’re watching this week.
This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon is our social media and website specialist. Burn It All Down is part of the Blue Wire podcast network.