The fundamental question is: What is the incentive for funding youth tournaments in The Gambia?
If corporate bodies are asked to step in, what should their incentives be? And what tangible benefits should they receive for carrying the financial burden?
In countries like Germany, youth leagues already exist as part of a strong football structure. This makes it easy for data companies like Wyscout to simply plug in, collect statistics, and provide services to clubs.
In Africa, the picture is different. The reality is that without consistent youth competitions, there is no data. Without data, there is no visibility for players.
Afriskaut is, at its core, a data company. We built artificial intelligence to collect and analyze performance data on African youth players. But quickly, we faced a barrier: where are the youth leagues for us to collect data from?
This absence pushed us into a role we did not set out to play — that of competition organizer. If we had to fund tournaments ourselves, then naturally we needed a model that allowed sustainability. That is why we structured agreements in ways that have raised concerns around Third Party Ownership (TPO). Our intent was not to control players, but to ensure that the heavy cost of organizing tournaments could be balanced against future returns.
Now, with this article styled to misrepresent us, Afriskaut is being forced to reconsider. If we are criticized for stepping in to fill a gap that no one else has been willing to fill, then the simple reality is that we may have no choice but to stop funding these tournaments altogether.
Our business model is built on data, not competition organization. If tournaments cannot be sustainably funded, then the data on Gambian youth football risks disappearing altogether.
Afriskaut should be commended for refusing to let young players go unseen. Instead of waiting for structures to appear, we built them — at our own cost — so that players could have a stage and clubs could have information.
So we leave readers with these crossroads:
- If corporate bodies should not fund youth tournaments, then who will?
- If corporate bodies do fund, how should their incentives be structured to ensure sustainability and fairness?
And finally, when a data company is forced into competition organizing just to ensure the very existence of youth football data — should they be condemned, or supported?
Afriskaut remains committed to transparency and dialogue. But unless all stakeholders take ownership of grassroots football, the risk is clear: the very competitions that give young Gambians a chance to be seen may cease to exist.
Best, Nnamdi Emefo
CEO
