Back in the early 2000, development in the provincial towns and villages of The Gambia was very low. During the rainy season communities organize local football tournament called “nawetaan” in order to create fun and also groom local talents in football. Many young people, predominantly students, who returned to the provinces to visit family members because it is holiday season took part in the nawetaan. The nawetaan became famous and it is still most watched football tournament in The Gambia.
At the time, very few major provincial towns have electricity and usually in turns and Jarra Soma happens to be one of them. Despite having electricity, people cannot watch national football matches live on TV because GRTS cannot be accessed in those areas. Most people resort to tuning radios and putting them on high structures like mango trees in order to have good signal to listen to commentaries. All these challenges do not deter people from following the development of our national football team. It was difficult to put names to faces at the time because people listen to radio commentaries from the great commentators like Malik Jones. However, people were fond of many names like Jato Ceesay, Safoe Solly, Aziz Corr Nyang, Ba Dembo Touray among others. Football jerseys were seriously scarce at the time therefore most young people print names of players on plain T-shirt using oil paint.
Fast forward to 2005 when The Gambia hosted the under- 17 CAF tournament and won the competition. That re-ignited the football spirit in the country and many young people became determined to make it in life through football. Then the football governing body was referred to as “The Gambia Football Association” then later metamorphosed to “The Gambia Football Federation (GFF)”. This is an independent body and it is free from all government interference.
Sometime in the year 2021, history was made when The Gambia qualified for the first time to AFCON tournament and it became a national pride as Gambians supported the team wholeheartedly. Matches were featured on the national TV where people watch the games. From the sporting perspective, the tournament was a success for the football team and it raised the national flag higher.
The question that needs to be asked is what economic benefit has GFF in particular gained from this ground-breaking event that supposed to generate lot of money for the country’s football governing body. The answer to this question would be to say just a limited financial reward was gained, if any. This is because some of the important ground work were missing and one in particular was that the GFF does not have Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). This could be avoided by filing for registration of The Gambia Football Federation as a trademark, the football jersey to be registered as a trademark and the design on the jersey to be registered as an industrial design. The images of the football players before, during and after football matches could be protected as copyright.
Many readers might be questioning what is an IPR. Intellectual Property Right is the protection granted for the creation of human mind. One of the benefits of IPR is that it generates economic reward to the owner creator. Intellectual property is divided into two main branches, that is Industrial Property and Copyright and related rights.
Going back to the issue at hand, during this crucial moment in preparing for the AFCON tournament, the country’s football governing body was faced with financial constraint (payment of bonuses) between the body and players which was later settled by the President. The kind gesture of the President is laudable. However, assume that the President does not settle the bonuses that the players claimed, the implication would be that The Gambia would not participate in the AFCON. Thank God now that the dust settles, we can all start hoping and praying for the boys.
The IPRs that have been highlighted above are all opportunities for the GFF to generate at least a million dalasi during this football season. However, but for IP ignorance, it is wasted opportunity because many businessmen are importing counterfeit Scorpion football jerseys from China in tons. The price of these jerseys is relatively lower than the one that is officially endorsed by the GFF. For the average Gambian, it is cheaper to buy the “China- made” jersey from the Serekunda market than to buy the one that GFF endorses. The price of jersey is most of the time determined by the quality of the product that one is buying. The one that is purported to be bought from China is inferior in quality and the manufacturing company varies from one seller to another. Some will have saller as manufacturing while others will have Puma, I hope that it ends at that. However, the two sets of jersey are so similar that an ordinary person would not be able to see the differences. To my surprise hundreds of Gambians are busy buying the jersey and have started wearing it. People would celebrate the Scorpions victories in the upcoming tournament in this jersey while leaving GFF with no option than regret losing out on monies that they could pocket.
Some commercial entities have started to put up posters of the team at their entrances. They did these at no cost and they are aware that its legal implication would be minimal because even though copyright protection once the work is created, there is the need to file for voluntary registration. This is important for records purpose and it can be used as evidence.
If proper structures were put in place, the millions that would be going to the businessman that shoulder no footballing responsibilities will gain millions of dalasi for just merely importing jersey into the country and sell them because there is no IPR protection on the jerseys. The liberal market man would argue that monopoly in trade is anti-competition. However, IPR is private and it does not come free and it must be respected because it is an economic right which is provided for in Chapter IV of our 1997 Republican Constitution as Fundamental Human Right and Freedom.
On Wednesday 10th January 2024, Point Newspaper on page 10 of the publication reported that Qcell signed sponsorship deal with GRTS for the live broadcast of all AFCON football matches. I must say that this is a good gesture that one can expect from a Gambian company, and after Qcell became official partner of the Scorpions for the AFCON tournament. However, out of curiosity, I would be thinking that GFF is at a strategic position to obtain permission from the CAF as a relevant stakeholder to broadcast all the matches in The Gambia and subsequently license the rights to Gambian TV stations that would want to show live matches of the tournament. This could be another source of income for the GFF which can be used wisely.
Senior Legal Manager
Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation
It is important to note that football tournaments are no longer mere entertainment, they also among other things generate financial income. It could be recalled that in the year 2010 before South Africa hosted the World Cup tournament, its government and relevant stakeholders ensured that the protection and promotion of IP was enhanced. Awareness creation and capacity building were done and more specialized courts were set up and capacitated to the maximum to enforce IPR. All these ground works were done to ensure that the tournament be successfully held and it cannot be done without the financial injection from donors. Therefore, there was the need to provide protection and an avenue to seek redress in infringement cases for IPR holders, for instance Nike, Adidas, Coca Cola among others.
In conclusion, it is high time for the GFF to consider obtaining as much IPRs as possible in order to gain financial reward from all the IPS protected. It can also use the registered IPR to stop any infringement of rights and may institute legal action to recover any harm caused by any infringement. Until such is done, the importation of counterfeit goods that strikingly resemble those of GFF will continue to impose financial threat to the opportunities that are available to the GFF.
