Comments on: Soccer for Good? Sports and Development in Concept and in Africa

By: Ross Evei

Ross Evei — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 08:34:37 +0000

Thanks for the article it was a great read, and I have to applaud you for you efforts both local and global! However the cultural and ethical issues run rampant in these situations and only through careful planning and effective management can these issues be avoided or lessened.

The problem when implementing programs that aid people in third world countries is designing the programs in such a way that it empowers local people, so instead of giving them fish you are teaching them to fish. So a highly successful soccer program for example, would need to be scalable and championed by local people in the community. There needs to leadership for this to work, so therefore you would need some sort of selection program that selects leaders from each village to run the soccer program in their given community, these people would be reviewed regularly to check that they are meeting prescribed targets, etc. Empowering local people is the only way to achieve success and growth of such programs, and this is the key driver of success in micro-finance programs that are an ideal base for such sporting based quality of life improving packages.

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By: Mediating South Africa 2010: Parting Thoughts and Sources | Pitch Invasion

Mediating South Africa 2010: Parting Thoughts and Sources | Pitch Invasion — Mon, 31 May 2010 16:48:02 +0000

[...] of players, on local obsessions with European leagues, on youth academies and player migration, on the idea of sports as part of development, and on magic and superstition), several pieces related to January’s African Nations Cup in [...]

By: watchat

watchat — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:05:03 +0000

Thanks for the comments.this is a well-written article, and your main point, which is that development is extraordinarily complex, is spot on.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:52:45 +0000

That’s a fair point, Dallas–I was a bit sloppy with my citations (it is a blog, after all!). But first I would note the linked study is not on 72 individuals, but 72,000. So that is a pretty good sample size. Though it is still one study, and predominantly college athletes–so the point that it may not be representative holds. For that, however, I’d point anyone interested to my post from a few weeks ago about role models, along with the article cited there: Shields, D. and Bredemeier, B., “Can Sports Build Character?” in Character Psychology and Education. The general conclusion across a wide range of studies is that sports participation can build character in the right contexts–but on average, as practiced, it does not.

I’m actually pretty familiar with the literature on this one (having been looking at it on and off since 1993), and the general conclusion holds across samples: on average athletes are not any better people than non-athletes (if anything, they are slightly deficient in conventional measures of moral development). So I feel pretty strongly about the broader argument I’m making–playing sports can be a good thing for people and communities, but it is far from an automatic process. In fact, when done poorly, playing sports can be a bad thing. Which is all the more reason to pay attention and make sure it is done well.

So it worries me when programs (both domestically and internationally) assume that just offering sports programs will be enough. It might help if done well. But doing it well takes careful attention, and that is what I’m after.

By: Dallas

Dallas — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:03:33 +0000

In general, this is a well-written article, and your main point, which is that development is extraordinarily complex, is spot on. However, I do need to point out that your reference to the study on athletes and moral development is taken grossly out of context. Who are the 72 athletes this study examined? Where are they from? What are the conditions in which they were brought up and educated? Given that your own message is somewhat of a warning for average people not to try to believe that they wholly comprehend developement (even if they do have the best of intentions), it seems that you should double check the validity of some of your claims and references…

By: African Soccerscapes: History, Ideas, and the 2010 World Cup | Pitch Invasion

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:55:24 +0000

[...] sports it is often netball, basketball, or athletics. But with the proliferation of NGO’s using sports as part of development and with funding from multi-nationals such as FIFA requiring at least some attention to the [...]

By: Andrew Guest

Andrew Guest — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:32:31 +0000

Thanks for the comments. Any “critical” piece to my perspective is definitely intended to be constructive–I hope that came across. I just get surprised at how often it seems good intentions and doing anything are assumed to be enough to make a real difference. Even with my own efforts in the past, I worry that sometimes I may have created more problems than I solved by raising expectations. But in other cases, with lessons learned, things clicked.

The one thing I had some trouble figuring out about the “20 Centres for 2010″ campaign is where they all are? The FIFA and Streetfootballworld web-sites only identify 6 centers. Those 6 certainly look promising, but it is confusing and a bit worrisome for the promotion to clearly emphasize “20″ without much explanation of why there don’t actually seem to be 20 Centres. And I have some knowledge from my academic work of a similar program associated with the Olympics where they promoted building of “Olympafrica” centers that did not seem to materialize (at least to the scale promoted). So I just hope the reality lives up to the rhetoric. I’m happy to give the benefit of the doubt, and admire the broad initiative, but it also seems fair to hope for some accountability to accompany all the promotions.

By: Mike Geddes

Mike Geddes — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:17:09 +0000

Hi Andrew, thanks for a very well-written article and one which takes a refreshingly critical look at the field of sport for development. As one of the members of the working team I have a vested interest in the 20 Centres for 2010 campaign that you mention, but I would like to point out that the success of this project depends upong exactly those local organisations that you mention it is so important to engage. Each Football for Hope Centre is an investment in education, public health and football and key to the success of this is selecting the right ‘Centre Host’. In the case of the first Football for Hope Centre in Khayelitsha it is Grassroot Soccer, and in all other centres it is an organisation with a similar track record and commitment to local, sustainable social change. So whilst this is an investment in infrastructure, it is completely aligned with how that infrastructure can allow a local organisation to be even more effective in addressing social issues within its community.

By: Elliott

Elliott — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:41:20 +0000

Great stuff Andrew! I did development work in Latin America, and any approach that is top-down and doesn’t incorporate local values and ideas is doomed to fail. Despite the best of intentions, projects really have to be flexible and approach things collaboratively, not condescendingly.

I’m pretty sure that the South African World Cup will make a few very rich Africans much much richer, and little else. But hey, maybe an ever so small drop will trickle down…