The Football Foundation for Africa (FFA) is among the nominees for this year’s Football Heroes Awards scheduled for Moscow, Russia on 12th September 2019. International Football Development Association (IFDA) instituted the special awards. The initiative aims to bring to light the best football practices characterised by superior professionalism, high social responsibility and exhibition of critical moral values. Global Leader in Sport organises the event
FFA was nominated in category 9 “For Social Responsibility Activities” alongside the European Football Development Network (EFDN), and We Can Kick It. The nomination is in connection with FFA Cup 2018 a tournament held in Moroka Village, Botswana in August 2018. The now annual event seeks to address the issue of unemployment by providing a platform for young people seeking job and career opportunities. The tournament was themed Tackling Unemployment through Sport and was supported by Mascom and OTB Africa.
About FFA Cup
FFA Cup was born out of another tournament, Obama Cup. Obama Cup is an annual tournament held in Nairobi, Kenya in honour of a friend and former teammate at Strathmore University FC, Allan “Obama” Onyango. Allan Onyango died tragically in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in January 2015. He had moved to Tanzania after failing to secure gainful employment in his native Kenya. We organised the first edition in January 2016, just as a way of bringing my friends and former teammates together.
Obama Cup continued to grow in popularity and in July 2018 at the time of launching FFA we decided to take Obama Cup to the continent as FFA Cup. FFA Cup 2018, therefore, doubled up as the launch of the Football Foundation for Africa. We plan to take FFA Cup to various villages, towns and cities across Africa.
International Football Development Association
International Football Development Association (IFDA) is an international football association formed by ex-football players and sport managers. Their objective is to study projects from the perspective of requalification, assistance and guaranties of a new professional life to its members after their football career.
The organisation aims to strengthen the visibility of ex-football players providing them with new professional opportunities that go beyond the sports career and to use the expertise they have acquired during their professional career for the benefit of the development of football and growth of its values around the world.
Football Heroes Awards
IFDA institutes special awards that bring to light the best football practices characterised by excellent professionalism, high social responsibility and exhibition of critical moral values. However noble they are, these practices are undeservingly ignored and rarely spoken about in the media.
Football Heroes Awards aim to emphasise that football is not only about players on the field, their hundred-million-dollar transfers and fashion style. In the first place, it is about hard work, professionalism, respect, compassion, determination and team spirit that engage a lot of people outside the football pitch.
The awards are aimed at distinguishing the practices of high value that have occurred in the past season, or the work carried out for years that has brought to the results that could be observed in the previous season.
We take this early opportunity to thank all who have been part of our journey thus far. We wish to express our gratitude to IFDA for the nomination. We would also like to congratulate of peers EFDN, and We Can Kick It as well as other nominees in the various categories.
We look forward to the Football Heroes Awards. See you in Moscow!
Back to Blog 
