I have been interested to see that UEFA (the European Football Association) is taking a position against FIFA continuing with its leadership election, given the corruption crisis. In contrast, CAF (the African association) wants the election to go ahead.
Tension between Europe and Africa is nothing new. And it is a product of stress and tension and inequality in the sport. If I stick on this topic in the next few months I will discuss how the inequalities in football overlap with inequalities in economic development more generally, and need to be discussed more explicitly. Here is the most simple representation of the issue: revenues from the major leagues in the world.
Notice that there are four English leagues with higher revenues than the first two African leagues--South Africa and Algeria. Looks a lot like cross country GDP data and is the opening salvo in a story of the haves and have nots.
Beyond the corruption scandals everyone is now paying attention to, these data also deserve attention.
Comments