Football is a game that brings people together, and that’s true in Africa as much as in any other part of the world. The sport is massively popular across the continent, with armies of fans following the best clubs and cheering for their national teams to win. However, there are notable differences that arise from the level of sport’s progress in each country and the specific preferences of the average fan.
As fans worldwide are preparing for the biggest tournament of the year and trying to figure out the best World Cup pre-match odds for their favourite teams, we take this opportunity to compare the fortunes of football fans in Kenya and South Africa. Only one of these teams will appear in the tournament, and there are deeper reasons for that that we will try to explain here.
Both Nations are Football Crazy
Ask anyone in the street in Nairobi or Cape Town and the answer will be the same – people care about football very deeply. The game is learned at an early age, and it represents a shared ritual for people of all backgrounds. In both countries, national teams enjoy undivided support of the population and their performance is a matter of national debate. In Kenya, the team is popularly called Harambee Stars and universally respected despite its lack of tangible results. For their part, South Africans call their soccer squad Bafana Bafana and take great pride in its every accomplishment. Both nations have caught the football bug, and they appear to be progressing towards the stage where the sport becomes an integral part of the national identity and a way to express solidarity with compatriots and spend good time with neighbours.
Kenya’s Focus on Foreign Leagues
It’s somewhat curious that a nation with so much grassroots interest in football is fairing as poorly as Kenya, which has never qualified for a World Cup and is struggling to unearth big name players. A big part of the explanation may be a relative lack of infrastructure, which limits how much local kids can become educated in the soccer fundamentals. In turn, fans seem to prefer following international football to watching Kenyan teams, and many of them are happily paying for satellite broadcasts to watch the biggest European clubs. While the interest for top leagues is understandable, it directly undercuts any efforts to grow football in Kenya and continuously reliant on ‘imported product’. Low quality of the national league and disappointing results of the national team are a direct consequence of this trend. In this regard, Kenya could learn something from other African countries that have already created a support system for promoting the sport and recruiting and training talented players.
South Africa’s Pride in Local Development
Everyone knows how crazy South Africa is about the game, and this passion was on full display during the first-ever World Cup hosted in Africa in 2010. With a better economic situation and a larger population than most countries in the continent, it’s no surprise that the team qualified for the 2026 World Cup as well. That represents a culmination of a long process that started at the club level, where several teams like Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns have long dominated the landscape and built strong brands. These teams now have loyal fan bases that will naturally transfer their interest to the national team during large international events. The existence of a strong club scene also ensures that young talent can be properly developed locally, and that sufficient level of investment exists to support ongoing growth of the game.