Nominated players that do not show up at the CAF Awards proper automatically will not be given the award. That was the shocking news from this week’s Glo/CAF awards press conference that took place in Lagos. Marketing Committee member of CAF, Mike Ituamagbor, explained that as a result of poor attendance by nominated players for awards at past CAF ceremonies, the Confederation bosses decided from last year (without explaining until now) that any nominated player for the award of Africa’s best player will not be given the award unless he is physically present at the ceremony. That’s was also to explain the controversy that arose from last years event when Diedre Drogba alleged that he was told before hand that he won the award only to be denied it later because he was not present to receive it. The impression Mike’s explanation left for me to swallow and digest is that, indeed, Kanoute was made Africa’s Best Footballer of 2007 at the venue of the ceremony last year, only because Diedre Drogba did not show up at the ceremony for personal reasons and sent his wife to represent him which was considered a slight by CAF bosses. But before then we were also informed rather shockingly, that CAF, in order to lure all nominated players to attend the event, sold a dummy to the all the nominated players by secretly confirming to each of them that they were the winner and should show up to be crowned! Phew! You mean CAF deceived the players? You mean CAF lied to the players? Just so they can attend a ceremony that is not compulsory for anyone to attend?

I find that totally incredulous! No wonder, Diedre flared up last year, cried foul, criticized CAF and raised fundamental questions that could now threaten the integrity of the award if not handled with care!

The matter is so simple. Trace the history of the awards. Until a few years ago and only after Globacom came and took them to new dizzying heights as a public event with plenty of razzmatazz, the awards were a very quiet affair. There was actually a time when it was a news magazine that picked winners and announced them. I was nominated three times in this same manner (check the records). CAF simply adopted the France-based magazine’s awardees. Later CAF took over, established more open criteria and tinkered with various processes of selection. They simply announced the results in their headquarters in Cairo, without any fanfare. No one raised any issues. Following the standards set in Europe, CAF decided to make the event glamorous and commercial by packaging a ceremony and bringing some transparency to the process. Of course, this development came with challenges of timing (the event competed for time and relevance with other football programmes), and offered little to make it a must-attend for players!.

Last year, I recall my personal intervention and discussions with Kalusha Bwalya, Abedi Pele, Sunday Ibrahim, Charles Gyamfi (coach) and even our own Daniel Amokachi in a hotel in Accra, convincing them to attend the event in honour of Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr. the Chairman of Globacom, whose contributions in enhancing the profile of African football should be appreciated. Partly as a result of that, last year’s event witnessed the largest attendance by African players, past and present, at any CAF organized event in history! Yet, those that attended were less than ten!

The challenge is that all CAF programmes have never placed the major actors, those that the public want to see and identify with, the players, at the centre. I do not understand how CAF has not seen the immense marketing benefit of exploiting player-power to drive their events particularly the CAF awards. At a football event who else would the public want to see but their heroes? Who would a sponsor put his money behind but the stars of the game? I was present an award ceremony where every corner-shop politician and local champion was introduced but not one of the three or four African football legends present was even as much as recognized throughout the event. I have been at an award ceremony compered by people that did not know any of the awardees and could lace the announcement of their names with their greatest achievements. One could not even pronounce the name of one of Africa’s greatest players correctly. A football event here in Africa must be enlivened with brief exultations and some measure of mild ‘praise-singing’ to give it a footballers’ celebration colouration.

The coming of Globacom as sponsor of the event is bringing massive changes. Amongst other things the organization goes out of its way to get awardees to come. Early this year in Lome, Dr. Adenuga provided three private aircrafts to ensure that the nominees and other guests critical to the success of the event attended. Even that did not succeed completely. So where does the problem lie?

In my humble opinion, the problem is with the event itself and not the players. The event has never been packaged with the African footballer as its pivot. All aspects of the programme are meticulously put together except that of the African footballer who needs more than the concept of wine and dine to leave everything else and attend an event whose past records reflect everything else but a true celebration of the African player. The concept of the event must be changed fundamentally. We can not wholesomely copy what Europe does and think it will work here. It must be re-packaged as a celebration of the African footballer, and not just a gathering of CAF executives, their wives and girlfriends, and local politicians. The event must eulogise the African player, past and present. It must introduce compelling elements that will make the best players want to come, and not only because they have been assured privately they are the winner! That’s the worst part. For no earthly reason must an awardee be told of the result before hand. That is cheating of the worst kind. For no order reason must a winner chosen but by ballot! No winner must be chosen by their presence at the presentation event. The responsibility to attract the players must fall squarely with CAF. CAF must guarantee the sponsor that the nominated players shall be present. CAF collects a huge sponsorship fee for the event, so to get the players to come CAF knows what to do – it must make the players enjoy part of the sponsorship largesse. Of course, the question will be asked: where does all the sponsorship money for the CAF awards go to?

At present, only the final winner at the event is celebrated. All nominees, all those legends and stars invited, all the future stars and legends must be presented in different ways and forms and celebrated equally. Africans thrive on praise-singing! They love it. African players are not immune to adulation and hero-worshipping! But the strongest factor remains that of ensuring there is something for every player that is invited. That way attendance will be by engagement and not by lying or by coercion, period!