This article was published on the South China Morning Post on July 6, 2006.
Underfunded but brimming with talent, Afrika United are the undisputed kings of Beijing’s amateur football championship, writes Joey Liu
EUROPE MAY BE assured of a World Cup win on home turf, but a few thousand kilometres away in mainland China, it’s the Africans who are the undisputed champions of international football – amateur football, that is.
Afrika United have had quite a season. They’ve just been rated the best team in the 12-year history of the International Friendship Football Club (IFFC) league – a threedivision league set up by expatriates, locals and students in Beijing. A member of the Beijing Football Association, the IFFC boasts more than 800 members from 70 countries, including China, comprising 40 teams. As the season concluded last month, Afrika United were the proud holders of every title, including league championship, league cup, league super cup, seven-a-side and five-a-side.
With fine skills and impressive physiques, Afrika United have been able to draw on the talents of players from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Libya, Liberia, Congo and Benin, as well as from locals. Three players have signed contracts with professional clubs in Indonesia, Vietnam and Tanzania. And star players such as striker Steven-Mark Nwamkpa from Nigeria are hoping to sign with mainland Chinese professional teams, which are eager to lure foreign talent with generous payments to boost their performance and rankings in the national leagues. Several team members, including Nwamkpa, have had tryouts with clubs in Kunming, Yunnan province.
Not bad going for a team that started out as a bit of fun – a social group with about six to eight players brought together by Kagashani Projestus, a shy, 36-year-old Tanzanian who is now the team coach. “When I studied here in 1995, it was very hard to mix with the other people, not only Chinese,” he says. “So we had to find a way to make our lives easier in Beijing and football is something that can unite us.”
Africans have come to work or study in mainland China since the 1960s, but they haven’t always been accepted by the locals. Anti-African demonstrations by Chinese students in 1988 in Nanjing are still fresh in some people’s minds. However, Projestus says he hasn’t experienced obvious racial discrimination in Beijing. Chinese still like to touch his skin, but he attributes that to ignorance rather than any intention to be offensive. He says people’s attitudes have changed as the city has grown increasingly cosmopolitan.
Jeremy Goldkorn, a South African expatriate and Afrika United supporter, says the official Chinese policy of encouraging friendly relations with Africa has had a positive effect. “The government always warmly welcomes leaders from small countries in Africa, giving them due respect,” Goldkorn says. “From this perspective, the government has educated the people in a good way. But Chinese people are ambitious and want to be the leaders of their undeveloped African ‘brothers’. So there’s a love and hate complex in their attitudes. On the one hand, they look down on Africans; on the other hand, they want to give a hand.”
Even within the expatriate African communities, there have been cultural divides, typically as a result of language issues. Originally, there were two African teams in the IFFC – the French-speaking Congo team Timbuktu and Projestus’ English-speaking Afrika FC. Plagued by talent shortages and financial troubles, the two clubs were forced to merge in 2000, creating Afrika United. It was difficult in the beginning. Language barriers prevented some French-speakers from joining the new team and it took time for players to learn how to co-operate with each other on the pitch. During the first four matches of that season, Afrika United drew one and lost the other three. “It was the most difficult season for us,” says Projestus. “It takes time to learn how to play together.”
He says the matches have helped foster a rapprochement between different cultures, not least between the Africans and the Chinese. Afrika United has three Chinese players, as well as a Belgian goalkeeper, and its fans are from around the world. “When it comes to football, there are no boundaries,” says Projestus. “There is no Chinese, no foreigners, no Africans or whatever. If you like football, you’re going to support the team that’s playing good football. There’s no question of nationalities or colours.”
But unlike many of the other teams in the IFFC, Afrika United face financial problems, lacking sponsorship deals or financial support from individual players with good corporate jobs. (The team comprise mainly students.) The cost of about 40,000 yuan a season for pitch hire, stadium rental, transportation and medical kit is a burden being shouldered by just three working members of the team. This means that Afrika United often lose players to other, more affluent teams in the league. “We have about 10 teams [in our first division],” says Projestus. “Some don’t have financial problems, and some players have financial problems. So it’s so easy for them to think of joining the other teams. We can’t compete financially.” Other players stay on for a different reason. “Why are some players still with us? Because they want to play good football,” he says. “If you want to improve your skills, you have to play with people who are good at football. It’s our way to keep our players. Otherwise, we can lose players so easily.”
Goldkorn [togethr with director Luke Mines] and team manager, Ethiopian Samuel Ahadu, made a documentary about the team last year in a bid to raise funds. African Boots of Beijing screened twice in the city, making a profit of about 7,000 yuan. The publicity from the film also helped the team secure a sponsorship deal with a local real-estate management company. However, the deal lasted only five months and now the club needs another sponsor.
Projestus still has aspirations to dominate the football pitches of the capital, but he’s not optimistic about the future of Afrika United. “If we can solve the cash problem, we’d like to develop into a professional or semi-professional team,” he says. “We want to move to a higher level. But if we cannot, we may have to disband.”
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