Why Bundesliga want to expand African market

Henning Brinkmann, the Bundesliga Sales Manager for Audiovisual rights in Africa and Europe. PHOTO | COURTESY |

What you need to know:

  • Bundesliga International is also laying down plans to have German youth development coaches come and conduct coaching clinics as their way of appreciating the massive support they get from Kenya.

Plans are underway to ensure that a German professional football club comes to engage Kenyan players in international friendly matches.

Henning Brinkmann, the Bundesliga Sales Manager for Audiovisual rights in Africa and Europe, says that Africa is key in Bundesliga’s expansion plans, and bringing a Bundesliga team to play friendly matches with a team from the continent is part of their plans to ensure that promote the league.

During a Pan-African media visit to Germany last week which was attended by journalists from Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, China, Ghana and South Africa and sponsored by StarTimes, Henning also revealed that the German top flight league enjoys a huge following in Kenya.

“We have a strong connection to Africa. Jay Jay Okocha, Sammy Kuffuor, Sunday Oliseh and so many African layers have succeeded here and that has helped us established presence in the continent. We have to thank African players for their influence in German football. Okocha, for instance, greatly impacted our style of play," Brinkmann said.

“We are still in the assessment phase, but we are looking at working with partners to bring our professional teams to play in Africa."

“Being the country with the largest Bundesliga audience, Kenya is a key market for us in sub-Saharan Africa. We have been there with Oliseh and Lothar Mattheus, and the next step is to bring a team from the Bundesliga to engage players and interact with our fans.”

“We are encouraging clubs like Bayern Munich to go out and engage with our fans from outside Germany, but organising a friendly match in Africa calls for consideration of several factors. However, we see interest from the clubs to grow their brands internationally so that shouldn’t be a big problem,” he said.

Apart from bringing a German club to Kenya, Bundesliga International is also laying down plans to have German youth development coaches come and conduct coaching clinics as their way of appreciating the massive support they get from Kenya.

“We are also exploring the idea of setting up grassroots programmes in the country. Hoffeinheim is already conducting football clinics in South Africa and Namibia and we would like to do the same in Kenya,” he said.