The Football Foundation for Africa

A big THANK YOU to all who joined us for last week's webinar, Football as Infrastructure: Building Solidarity for Women’s Health in Africa, hosted in collaboration with the policy/strategy group.

At The Football Foundation for Africa, we were proud to convene a diverse and engaged community of stakeholders committed to advancing this agenda.

The level of participation and engagement shows that football and sport are becoming a platform for broader societal gains, including women’s health across Africa and beyond.

If you missed the session or would like to revisit the discussion, you can watch the full recording here: https://lnkd.in/dTJrmaVP

We would also greatly value your feedback. If you haven’t yet completed the post-webinar survey — or will be watching the recording — please take a few minutes to share your insights: https://lnkd.in/ddcQ_i2N

Your input is critical as we continue to shape this work, ensuring it remains practical, scalable, and grounded in impact.

We are pleased to welcome Tshiamo Molefe as Executive Director of The Football Foundation for Africa, reinforcing our leadership as we continue to grow.

With 15+ years across private equity, corporate finance, and sustainable infrastructure, Tshiamo brings a strong track record in ecosystem building, partnerships, and driving investment through sport and the SDGs. She has already played a pivotal role in shaping our journey over the last two years through commitment, resilience, and ex*****on.

As we enter our next phase, we are proud to have her leadership at the heart of what we are building.

Welcome, Tshiamo. ⚽🌍



Our team. https://lnkd.in/d7xX5vHT

We’re pleased to welcome Chris Pinderhughes to The Football Foundation for Africa as Head of Growth & Strategy, Africa Football Development Network (AFDN).

Chris brings a strong blend of international experience, venture-building insight, and a deep passion for football as a driver of social impact. His background across multiple markets and sectors adds important capacity as we continue to build.

FFA is growing from strength to strength—and with leadership now taking shape within AFDN, we are entering the next phase of our journey.

Welcome to the team, Chris. Let’s build. ⚽🌍

The Football Foundation for Africa is pleased to welcome Chris Pinderhughes as Head of Growth & Strategy for the Africa Football Development Network (AFDN).

Chris brings international experience across strategy, partnerships, and venture growth, alongside a deep passion for leveraging football as a platform for social impact.

As FFA continues to grow, strengthening our leadership is an important step as we prepare for the next phase of building a continental ecosystem for football-driven development.

We look forward to working together to unlock new opportunities for impact across Africa.

Welcome on board, Chris.

https://footballfoundation.africa/the-team/

We are pleased to join the BL Ballers Cup 2026 as the Official Impact Partner.

This founder-to-founder collaboration between BL Ballers and The Football Foundation for Africa (FFA) reflects a shared belief that football must translate into education, employment, and long-term opportunity creation.

Taking place on 14 June at Goals Leicester, the BL Ballers Cup brings together grassroots culture, professional talent, and a growing ecosystem of partners shaping the future of football.

We look forward to contributing to a tournament that continues to bridge community football and the wider football industry.

Read more. https://footballfoundation.africa/bl-ballers-x-ffa-a-founder-to-founder-alignment/

Recently, the University of Nairobi Institute for Development Studies hosted a webinar where Dr Fred Amonya presented a compelling critique of Africa’s “infrastructure gap” narrative, challenging deficit thinking in development policy.

The conversation raises an important question for African sport:

Are we framing football through gaps — talent gaps, facilities gaps, commercial gaps — instead of designing it as infrastructure?

In our latest article, we explore how the Football as Infrastructure (FaI) model applies a complexity-aware lens to African football systems, positioning football as a platform that shapes governance, access to healthcare, youth employability, and domestic value retention.

As we look ahead to AFCON 2027, this discourse is timely. Beyond stadiums and events, how do we build durable systems?

Read the full article: https://footballfoundation.africa/from-infrastructure-gap-to-football-as-infrastructure/

African football diaspora participation must move beyond visibility to systems.

In this article, we explore why structured, early, and intentional diaspora engagement matters, and how it can strengthen pathways linking football to education, employment, and long-term opportunity creation.

The piece is informed by a conversation with Beryly Lubala, whose thinking reflects a shift from symbolic engagement to systems-level participation.

📖 Read the article: https://footballfoundation.africa/why-diaspora-participation-matters-beyond-visibility-to-systems/

The Football Foundation for Africa (FFA) is pleased to welcome Beryly Lubala as an FFA Ambassador.

Beryly's leadership as a professional footballer, currently turning out for Stevenage Football Club, and founder of BL Ballers and BL Ballers Foundation CIC, reflects a powerful and timely truth: African football’s future will be shaped not only on the continent, but also by Africans in the global game.

This partnership will be anchored in the participation of the African football diaspora in African development, with a focus on strengthening pathways that connect football to education and the creation of employment opportunities.

We are proud to build this together and to set an example of diaspora-led engagement that is structured, credible, and future-facing.



Read more. https://footballfoundation.africa/beryly-lubala-appointed-ambassador-of-the-football-foundation-for-africa/

We’re pleased to announce a strategic partnership between The Football Foundation for Africa (FFA) and DocHire: Borderless Healthcare Staffing, Inc., to embed healthcare access directly into football ecosystems across Africa.

Through this MoU, we are launching Football-for-Health as a dedicated pillar within the Africa Football Development Network (AFDN) — aligned with our Football as Infrastructure (FaI) model. The goal is simple but ambitious: to treat football not just as a sport, but as a scalable delivery system for public goods, starting with health.

This collaboration will integrate clinical staffing, telehealth, data intelligence, and safeguarding standards across academies, grassroots tournaments, and community hubs, strengthening athlete welfare while extending benefits to surrounding communities.

Initial pilots are proposed in Kenya and Ghana, with a phased rollout across the continent.

🔗 Link:
https://footballfoundation.africa/ffa-and-dochire-inc-announce-strategic-partnership-to-deliver-scalable-football-for-health-infrastructure-across-africa/

From Clay Pitches to Continental Policy: When Government Truly Embraces Sports as Infrastructure.

In 2015, our founder documented a troubling pattern: talented Kenyan footballers cycling through failed international transfers—victims of an "export mindset" that shipped raw talent abroad without building robust local systems (https://brianwesaala.com/developing-for-the-local-market). The question then was: Why can't football work like Africa's tech ecosystems, where professionals build expertise locally before international opportunities naturally emerge?

At the recent Africa Football Business Summit, Ghana's Minister for Sports and Recreation, Hon. Kofi Adams, MP, didn't just validate this thinking—he's implementing it.

His keynote delivered stark realities: → Africa: 1.4B people, 60% under 25 → Global football economy: $200B annually → Africa's share: Less than 2%

"This is not a talent deficit. It is a systems failure."

But Honourable Adams isn't stopping at diagnosis. Last week, he inaugurated a Ministerial Advisory Board that includes experts from education, finance, law enforcement, industry, and the private sector, including legendary Pele.

Their mandate? Oversee a Sports Development Fund heading to Parliament to finance sports infrastructure, youth development, and grassroots delivery.

Most tellingly, Minister Adams noted: "We discussed how sports can contribute to wider national goals, from improving sanitation to addressing illegal mining and promoting inclusion."

This is infrastructure thinking in action.

We don't export infrastructure. We build on top of it. We connect through it.

Ghana is proving the model: broadcast deals, guaranteed prize money, strategic policies, and now, dedicated infrastructure financing with cross-sector integration.

The question isn't whether African football matters. It's whether more governments will follow Ghana's lead.

New article exploring this 10-year journey: https://footballfoundation.africa/from-clay-pitches-to-continental-infrastructure-ten-years-of-reimagining-african-football/

A big thank you to Fly Skyward Express, our Official Regional Airline Partner for the Africa Football Business Summit 2025. Your generous support played a crucial role in helping our team deliver this year’s Summit. We are truly grateful.

We wish to take this opportunity to congratulate Skyward on their well-deserved nomination for Best Domestic Airline at the Kenya Travel Industry Business Awards. Their commitment to reliability, service, and supporting homegrown initiatives like ours makes them an outstanding choice.

We encourage our community to show support and cast their vote for Skyward Airlines. https://awards.ketiba.co.ke/index.php?pg=public-vote&q=10&fbclid=PARlRTSAOKV2xleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAaf3-hGnCnR6DaZB0zngZIQeJ4c-RtuvzkGnx-uVdkCqrl72-A5gYwiqv1uulw_aem_vWgnKLNqND2Bzp4QEoPAFw

Let’s help them bring this award home!