CAF Media Seminar: Media is the window of African Football

Communication is a key area in any institution. Breakdown of any system in this area leads to wrong information being traded in the public which later affects the institution.

Both Confederation of African Football (CAF) and Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) rate communication highly- the more reason they have come up with media seminars this year in Tanzania and Cameroon for their Member Associations.

The seminar in Yaoundé has brought together all National Football Association communication managers on the African continent except Kenya, Morocco, Niger, Liberia, Libya, Djibouti, and Cape Verde who missed due to various reasons.

The facilitators of the seminar were from FIFA and CAF with experience on African football.

Hans Hultman-FIFA Senior media operations manager is one of the presenters.

Hans talked about the roles of the National FA communications manager who is supposed to create balance between the federation and the media without antagonizing any party’s roles and responsibilities.

The experienced Swede, who is part of the FIFA 2018 World cup in Russia Local Organizing committee, believes that the National FA communication managers need to work hard to feed the media with facts and timely delivery of information.

It is important to lay a good ground for the media when organizing a match. Give the media all the information they need to make their work much easier Said Hultman.

He revealed that the key points for a communications manager of any Federation while handling the media are; proper preparations, knowledgeable, knowing the roles and responsibilities, Team work, flexibility and common sense.

He took through the Communication managers on how to handle the journalists at international matches.

The media acts as the bridge between the football federation and public. A good working environment helps them execute their work very well. You need to listen to them and also handle their accreditation properly, added Hultman.

The participants were also taken through on the importance digital media that is on the rise as another form of communication to cater for the current generation.

You are the windows of African Football. Countries in Europe and the rest of the world are struggling to get information about many African clubs. Give them proper facts to aid their needs and demands, Remarked Gerard Dreyfus who has covered African football for 43 years so far.

He however cautioned the media; You need to be careful while reporting because you can create conflicts among society and football administrators.

In the process, the communication managers were guided on how to update Member FA pages with content on the CAF website.

Druyfes further said This seminar is to equip you with all technical support to improve on your communication with activities from your countries’.

The CAF Media seminar covered;

-The network of CAF press organs

-General principles of organizational communication: Internal and external communication, press relations, targets and scope of work.

-Methodology on writing press releases and briefs

-Participants’ experiences on the organization of their work in the respective members Fas

-Media operations: chronology, conduct, principles and timing (the eve of the match and math day)

-Digital media

-General principles of journalistic writing, reports, documentaries on African football.

The facilitators: Hans Hultman (FIFA Senior Media Operations Manager), Clémentine Girard (SportFive-official Marketing and Media agency for CAF since 1994), Gerard Dreyfus (Experienced journalist on African football for 43 years), Alex Trickett (Twitter, Sports), Junior Binyam (CAF Media Director), Amr El Sadek (CAF Media).