Historic seminar for African soccer media officers concludes in Cameroon

THE ORGANIZATION of the beautiful event has marked an unprecedented exercise in the 57 year-old history of the Confederation of African Football {CAF}.

The seminar which ran 8-11 December and was held at the CAF centre of excellence in Mbankomo just outside the Cameroonian capital Yaounde, has opened a new window of friendship and cooperation for football media officers from across the continent.

During the 4-day seminar, deputy chief of FIFA communications department, Hans Hultman made a lecture on general principles of organizational communication, internal and external communication, press relations, media operations and adopting the principles to sport organizations.

Gerard Dreyfus who has more than 40 years of experience in covering African football and currently serves as the editor of the French version of CAF website, delivered lectures on general principles of journalistic writing, reporting, interviews, and documentary sources of African Football and coverage of sporting events.

Other main sources of the seminar were: Amr Elsadek who illuminated the media officers on how they will update their respective associations’ pages of the CAF website, CAF media director Junior Binyam who made a presentation on CAF competitions (periodicity, form, organization) and CAF 2015 Calendar, while Clementine Girard taught the participants more about the CAF digital media, how it was beneficial to affiliate associations and the role it can play in sponsorship and marketing.

In his closing remarks, CAF media committee chairman, Anjoring Moucharaf Ayodele, said that the seminar was part of the new vision of CAF president Isse Hayatou towards development of African football.

“You are the pioneers of the new vision and I put much more responsibility on you to report from football events in your respective countries—CAF is committed to empowering you and I affirm that this will not be the last seminar as more others will come” Mr. Anjoring Moucharaf Ayodele told the media officers in his closing speech on Thursday.

He added that media officers were expected to hugely contribute to such vision.