CFC Presents African Football Shorts on BBC

Communicating for Change (CFC), Television for the Environment (TVE) and three Broadcasting for Change partners across Africa, present their latest series, African Football Shorts.
African Football Shorts is a set of human interest accounts which capture some of the grassroots stories that lie behind the great footballing drama - the hopes, lamentations, dreams and dilemmas of African players, spectators, workers and plain hangers on, seen from a uniquely African perspective.
A press release from CFC noted that: “As the countdown to the first ever FIFA World Cup on African soil begins, there is no doubt that the tournament will greatly benefit South Africa in tourism revenue and publicity. However, for millions of ordinary Africans in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and Zimbabwe who can’t afford a ticket to watch the tournaments, what is the measure of the tournament’s impact on their lives? There are a thousand and one questions about the competition and whether or not it will count in the lives of ordinary Africans.”
“How will Nigerians, playing a unique form of para-soccer feel the tempo of the 2010 World Cup? Of what impact is the World Cup to the life of a small time trader who earns a living from selling football strips and souvenirs in Nigeria’s bustling market along Ojuelegba road, Lagos? Will the tournament improve the livelihoods of Johannesburg’s street food hawkers? Why can’t women compete, or referee, in the tournament? And is anyone ever too old to play soccer?”
Filmed in cities, on village soccer fields, and in state-of-the-art football stadia, the 10 African Football Shorts (mini-documentaries) will be broadcast on the BBC World News daily, from Monday, May 31 to Friday, June 11.
Communicating for Change (CFC), as part of the Broadcasting for Change Network, has the broadcast rights to distribute the mini-documentaries to national and local TV stations across Nigeria.
African Football Shorts were filmed by TVE partners, Communicating for Change (CFC) Nigeria; OnScreen Productions, Kenya; Media for Development Trust (MFD), Zimbabwe; and Rishile Bosele Communications (RBC), South Africa, and Themartist Productions, Slum Dwellers International, South Africa.
The series is part of TV’s ‘Five Years to Go’ project on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in sub-Saharan Africa, and is generously supported by the European Commission, Oxfam Novib, UNFPA and UN-HABITAT.
Communicating for Change (CFC), Nigeria’s leading development communications organization, produces film, radio, television, print, and web based media to tell development stories from an African point of view, ensuring that audiences across the continent are informed and empowered to make good choices.