Research Topic How Can We Adapt an Academy to Help Promote the Development of Football in Uganda and Improve the Recognition Of

Research Topic

How can we adapt an academy to help promote the development of football in Uganda and improve the recognition of upcoming athletes in the region?

Bachelor Thesis Geneva Business School

Bachelor in Sports Management

Submitted by:

Martha Okello Akullo

Geneva, Switzerland Approved on the application of:

Mr. Frank Hendrickx

And

Dr. XXXXXXXXXXX

Date: 21 May 2020

Declaration of Authorship

“I hereby declare:

● That I have written this work on my own without other people’s help (copy-editing, translation, etc.) and without the use of any aids other than those indicated; ● That I have mentioned all the sources used and quoted them correctly in accordance with academic quotation rules; ● That the topic or parts of it are not already the object of any work or examination of another course unless this has been explicitly agreed on with the faculty member in advance; ● That my work may be scanned in and electronically checked for plagiarism. ● That I understand that my work can be published online or deposited to the university repository. I understand that to limit access to my work due to the commercial sensitivity of the content or to protect my intellectual property or that of the company I worked with, I need to file a Bar on Access according to thesis guidelines.”

Date: 21 May 2020

Name: Martha Okello Akullo Signature:

Acknowledgments (if any) In the acknowledgment of the completion of this Thesis, I thank all the people who supported and guided me throughout the process of writing this paper.

"First of all, I thank Frank Hendrickx, for all the advice, input, and connection he put me in touch with throughout my research period."

“Secondly, I would like to thank Mirza Garcia, and Emmanuel Sesay for taking time out of their schedules to help support and advise me throughout the process of my thesis.”

“Thirdly, I would like to thank Mohamed, Edu, and Daniel Talisuna for letting me interview them and gain deeper insights about their experience within academies.”

“Lastly, I give a special thanks to Tarek Salame for taking time out of his work schedule to help proofread as well as advise me throughout the process of my thesis.”

Table of Content Declaration of Authorship 2

Acknowledgments (if any) 3

Table of Content 4

Abstract 5

Chapter 1: Introduction 7

Chapter 2: Summary of Literature Review 9 Research Topic 9 Introduction 9 Background of Uganda 9 Sports Governance in Uganda 10 The reputation of Ugandan Football 10 International influence on the idea 11 Problems with Ugandan football 12 Financial influence 13

Chapter 3: Body of Thesis 14

Description of business 14 Ownership 14 Business model 14 Mission and Vision 16

Services 17

Marketing Analysis 18 Uganda football background 18 Market Segmentation 18 Market research results summary: 19 Main Competitors 20 SWOT 21

Strategy and Implementation 21 Organizational chart 21 Management 22 Human Resources Process 22 Code of conduct 23 Admissions Process 23 Scheduling of the Academy 24

Value proposition 24 Marketing strategy 25 Marketing Campaign 26 Pricing strategy 27 Finance 28 Startup costs 28 Funding request 28 Income statement 29 Cash flow statement 30

Chapter 4: Findings 31

Chapter 5: Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations 34

References 35

Appendices 40

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to gain a brief understanding surrounding the football market within Uganda, in order to contrast a football academy to help with the overall development of youth athletes within the nation. The business plan illustrated how the academy will operate, the logistics surrounding it, how it is envisioned to look like, the pricing strategy around the academy, the marketing strategy put in place to gain exposure, and the financial projection surrounding a 5-year operational plan of the academy.

The paper also takes into consideration problems surrounding the governing body of football in Uganda, as well as original market research, through interviews with market experts in Europe and Africa, giving advice and recommendation about the important aspects to take into consideration when running an academy. Additionally, to an interview with an individual who inspired this paper by the name of Daniel Talisuna. Most importantly the paper is also constructed around the opinion of the people from within Uganda, considering their interests, thought around the idea through the help of surveys conducted on both parents and students.

With major findings surrounding the idea being mostly positive, with a few recommendations put in place and taken into consideration in order to make the idea more realistic and less of a dream.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Growing up, I was one of the few talented individuals in football within my high school who never got to nurture my talent due to the lack of opportunities that are currently present in my country (see appendix graph 1.3), Uganda. It is clear that there is a lot of undiscovered talent within the nation (FIFA, 2003; Mohamed Interview, 2020), who have no potential to grow into a professional career due to the lack of organization and incompetent coaching at the youth level across the nation (FIFA, 2003), making the possibility of elite-level football for the youth near to impossible. This brought me to come up with the idea to bring the concept of academies that have been a vital part of the development of football in Europe, with top clubs throughout Europe all having academies at a lower level. Allowing for youth players such as likes of Anssumane Fati (FcBarcelona, 2020) a 16-year-old player who now plays for FC Barcelona 1st team or even Tammy Abraham (ChelseaFC, 2020), and Mason Mount (ChelseaFC, 2020) to feed their talents as players from a very young age at Chelsea FC. To ensure they had a chance to prevail into a successful career which they all kick-started in 2019 when they all made their first-team debut for their signing club in the 2019/20 season (ChelseaFc, 2020; FcBarcelona, 2020). With the knowledge I’ve been able to obtain from my bachelors in sports management and recommendations from my advisors and interviewee, I believe this can be a good business venture to start in Uganda, considering the talent and developing nature of the football market in Uganda (Mohamed Interview, 2020), alongside the lack of opportunities within the country for this young talent, and interest according to data supported in appendix graph 1.5.

With this in mind, I thought it would be a good step for Uganda to introduce a high-level academy to help with the development of the nationals youth sporting talents, thus, increasing the competitive level of football for the country. Whilst also increasing the number of national players who build a successful career without the need for looking for an academy beyond the borders of their own nation. This also brings in the opportunity for the country to invest in more qualified coaches to improve the level as a whole across the board of the status of coaches around the leagues (Sport Northern Ireland, 2012). This is proven due to a model that was tested by Northern Ireland (Sport Northern, 2012) in 2010 called the SPLISS model. This shows how the investment in elite sports has gone towards the improvement of facilities and development of the nation’s national football team. This was seen in a massive improvement shown by the Northern Ireland national football team in the 2016 Euro cup when they made it all the way to the round of 16’s, the furthest they have gone in a long time. Instead of having billions unaccounted for funds being invested in the sports without any visual evidence of an improvement of the sport (Schatzberg, 2001). This will be made possible in Uganda by introducing the SPLISS model into our academy model (Sport Northern Ireland, 2012), allowing for accountability for all the areas of our academy financially. In addition, allowing for investors and our board of directors to easily allocate funds into the development of football within the academy. The introduction of this model will bring to light a new perspective of how to properly ensure that funds within our nation are not being put to waste (Sport Northern Ireland, 2012) when we present our project for approval and licensing to the government and minister of education and sports in

Uganda. Therefore, showing the Uganda government and head of Sports within the country that a change must be made to ensure there are visual changes within the sports industry after an investment has been made (Schatzberg, 2001).

This thesis will be conducted as a business plan which will be used to answer the following question; How can we adapt an academy to help promote the development of football in Uganda and improve the recognition of upcoming athletes in the region?

I will introduce innovative ideas, in order to create an ideal academy in Uganda that will help change the way in which the country approaches the development of football within the nation forever. In addition, to helping the discovery of national players within the region at an international level. Potentially helping to bridge the ever so big gap between the level of competition of African football and European football in the future (Mugenyi, 2020).

This is a relevant business idea for the Ugandan sports industry, mainly because of the lack of basic knowledge, facilities, technical measures, organization, and protection of players within the league for this region (Schatzberg, 2001). An academy such as this one can be used to set the stand for the rest of the nation in terms of allocation for the proper physiotherapy, and rehabilitation methods for injured players. In addition, to ensure that players' diets are enforced to ensure that players are not wrecked by the time they reach the age of 28 (FIFA, 2003). The Ugandan league is uneducated in the basic need to sustain their players due to the lack of experience at a lower level of the athlete’s careers (FIFA, 2003), therefore, explaining the lack of technique, and tactical ability at the professional level of the country (FIFA, 2003). The only way to access this problem, and change the face of the league and the durations of an athletes professional career in Uganda is by enforcing higher standards at an elite-level through the help of training course and educational programs for athletes at an academy, alongside the proper professional guidance of qualified training and medical staff for these athletes. Only then can a change be implemented to the league as a whole after the youth knows the right ways to go about protecting their future careers from an early level. Thus, influencing the levels above them to change their ways.

In order to support this idea, I will look at the state of the football league at both an elite-level and professional level in Uganda. In addition, to looking at how much funding is given towards the development of football within the nation, as well as, what regulations are put in place by FUFA in comparison to those put in place by UEFA and see how these vary in the different regions and see if these differences are affecting the level which football is being played within the two regions. With this in mind, I will take into consideration what academies such as Kaptiva are doing in Spain and try to adapt their methods and those of academies for Football Clubs such as FC Barcelona. From this, I will try to infuse them to make an ideal academy that can be placed within the Ugandan market with consideration of current academies within the nation.

Chapter 2: Summary of Literature Review

Research Topic How can we adapt an academy that can help promote the development of football in Uganda and improve the recognition of upcoming athletes in the region? This, in the end, would help to bring up new talents from a lower level to improve the overall level of the league and get the country behind its own nation's football once again.

Introduction In developing countries such as Uganda, football development has massively been downgraded due to the lack of opportunities through the unavailability of high-level football training facilities within the nation that could have been used to develop the state of the country football over the year (Mugenyi, 2020). With there being an uprising in big teams not wanting to have only local players anymore, more agents in Uganda are looking for young talents to offer to big teams like Arsenal, to send players (Mugenyi, 2020). The introduction of my idea into the market will help raise the level of football within the nation from the youth level. Therefore, agents within the nation will not have such a hard time promoting young talents to teams such as Arsenal. Unlike right now where a number of Ugandan local players are spending more time fighting poor governance of the league and its funding than they are actually playing and developing their skills whilst still young (Mugenyi, 2020) thus, affecting the overall view of the Ugandan league and its future outlook.

With this in mind, I will look through a number of articles, dissertations, books, newspapers, and Journals to understand the overall outlook of the Uganda football league, how it's governed, the government's overall involvement in the development of sports, especially football in Uganda. In addition to this, I also looked at programs other countries such as Ireland have put into place within their countries and looked at how that can be put into the overall structure of my academy to the development of football for the nation.

Background of Uganda Uganda is located in central-eastern Africa, It's a landlocked country that is bordered by Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan. The current average population of Uganda is 43,252,966. According to Africa: Uganda - The World Factbook - Central Intelligence Agency (2020), Uganda has one of the youngest growing populations in the world, with 48.21% of the age structure within Uganda being between the ages of 0-14 years old. The mean total age of Uganda is 15 years old, with the average age for males being 14 years old and for females being 16 years old. The current income level of Uganda is classified as a lower-income country, however, as shown below the country's economy is constantly increasing and in ascending order as the years past and is expected to hit an average GDP per capita of 1,097.65 according to data published by Plecher (2019).

Sports Governance in Uganda The dissertation by Ogola discussed the governance structure around the FUFA which stands for the Federation of Uganda Football Association. The paper gives you a brief understanding around the problems surrounding the Ugandan football association, Ogola (2019) goes on to state how the FUFA has been failing to manage football matter within the nation for over 41 years mainly due to the fact that the nation has failed to qualify for the African Cup of Nations, with observes stating that this was due to the incompetence of whoever was in charge of FUFA during this time period (Ogola, 2019). Additionally, it was made clear that the FUFA is supervised by both FIFA and the National Council of Sports (NCS) in Uganda. This has in some instances made the situation at FUFA quiet tense, resulting in a large number of leaders within the federation losing their jobs (Ogola, 2019). The problem statement within this paper provides an adequate amount of information to understand that the leadership methods that are being used within the current FUFA board are affecting the overall development speed and level of organization within the ambition of the nation to continue developing its current football levels. The development of football between the years of 2005 to 2019 has not been as drastic as Ugandan would have expected, is the lack of strategic leadership and implementations by the government, the NCS, and FUFA to blame for this? According to Ogola (2019), yes. The paper concluded that FUFA needs to improve its current implementations and leadership strategies. Aziz (2019) then goes on to back up that football is the most popular sport in Uganda and is closely followed by Basketball or Rugby. Additionally, Azizi (2020) demonstrates how the NCS plays a role in the development, promoting and controlling of sports within Uganda on behalf of the ministry of education and sports, and has been doing this for Uganda ever since 1964. This shows that the government does not have direct involvement in matters to do with sports within Uganda.

The reputation of Ugandan Football All bad reputation that has been placed onto Uganda and it's football performances all seem to blame primarily the sports national administrators (FUFA) within the country 10

according to citing by Schatzberg (2001) where he gives an example that shows what a “nightmare” as he puts it, it is to work with the then-current FUFA administration. Additionally, he goes on to explain that the FUFA administration has always been governed much like the current government of Uganda, with corruption and misidentification of important information such as funds that are donated to the country. For the FUFA administration, this is the case when it comes to matters involving FIFA as they have had to intervene in a number of political issues surrounding FUFA organizational structure following an incident where revenue that was provided to the FUFA could not be accounted for, FIFA was called to action to ensure that the removal of the then FUFA president, Denis Obua (Schatzberg, 2001). It was later found that resources were being channeled throughout the walls of the federation. This has now contributed to corruption levels within the federation as more people now want to gain office in FUFA as this will give them the capability to have a hands-on opportunity to all the money that is pumped into the federation from international systems (Schatzberg, 2001). This shows how over the years the Ugandan football reputation and development have been significantly downgraded mainly by the reputation and actions of the Ugandan federation, FUFA. However, FUFA administration was also called into question at an international level in 2014 leading up to the WorldCup, as the Uganda chief officer was sanctioned by FIFA for allocations that he had taken part in the reselling of tickets for the WorldCup (BBC, 2019). This shows the high levels of corruption that is taking place within the football governing body in Uganda. Thus, explaining why the development of football within the nation is so slow, as the bodies in charge are taking advantage of the resources being presented to them from an international level.

International influence on the idea The football within Uganda is heavily influenced by international leagues such as the English premier league, La Liga, and the German Bundesliga, with more and more local fans giving their loyalty to top clubs such as Arsenal, Manchester United, and Barcelona (Atwiine, 2016). Just to show how big of a fan-based the English premier league has in Uganda here are some numbers that illustrate how many people are loyal to the English premier league. On a champions league semi-final night against Manchester United and Arsenal, they were able to fit 500 people into a room that was only meant to be able to hold the capacity of 150 people, with an additional 100 people standing out the room trying to get a peek of the action (Kavuma, 2009). I found this interesting considering there are no Ugandan players currently playing within any of these leagues, thus, showing us how much of an influence the international league is having on the fan-based of the local football fans within Uganda. The influence of international leagues goes beyond just the fan base as any players who have been successful enough to play for the national team (Ugandan Cranes) still dream of one playing at an international level (Atwiine, 2016). With less than 10 Ugandan born football players have managed to make it to an international scene. But even the ones that have made it only got to play for lower-level teams in Iceland that not many football fans in the world know about (Atwiine, 2016). In addition to this, the contrast between the fan base for the Ugandan leagues and international league it outrageous, According to Kavuma (2009) on a night when two of the biggest teams in Uganda were playing each other at Namboole stadium 11

which has a capacity of 40,000, there was less than 100 fans who actually attended the game.

To help support my idea I found two young players who have now broken their way into top teams within Europe, Tammy Abraham, and Anssumane Fati. Both of which were originally from an African descent but have now taken upon the nationality of the countries they now play in (Chelsea Fc, 2020; FcBarcelona, 2020), all of which started their career from having access to an academy that helped them gain knowledge, experience, as well as, nurture the skills they already had from a young age. This also showed how academies have been the source of success for some European clubs such as Chelsea in their 2019/20 season, in addition to, more and more young players are being used at an international level to fuel clubs’ core strengths today. This is why academies like Kaptiva (2020) in Uganda would do good for the youth athletes who dream of being professional players, this could help improve their already acquired skills, build their football knowledge, as well as, improve their academic knowledge and English language levels.

Problems with Ugandan football According to Kavuma (2009), one of the biggest problems with the Ugandan football league at the moment is the lack of money. This is what is separating them from the international level as players are struggling to sustain themselves properly due to the low levels of wages they receive when they do actually receive their wages for playing. As there have been so many reports that suggest that players were not getting paid, Kavuma (2009) cited that KCC players were threatening not to travel to Sudan for an African Champions League match against Al Merreikh mainly because they had not been paid yet. This has brought problems towards the development and performance of football for Ugandans. The lack of payment received has resulted in a number of bad performances on the pitch, which has resulted in a decrease in the number of local fans who are actually interested in watching Ugandan football. This makes it more clear to myself and others why there seems to be a growth in the number of locals interested in international leagues like the English Premier League, La Liga, and the German Bundesliga (Kavuma, 2009).

The lack of money has contributed to the inability to expand the league due to the lack of financing. Therefore, when it comes to development in order to strengthen the national team the selection criteria is very narrow (FIFA, 2003), explaining why there is a lack of development at the national level. On the other hand, the lack of academies within the country that are put in place solely for the development of talents means that there is less emphasis being put on the training of youth teams (FIFA, 2003). This has affected the overall tactical ability and technique of Ugandan players, with most of their elite youth player’s abilities, are those of which they picked up playing football on the streets (FIFA, 2003).

The above problems have all been brought about by the Ugandan football administration. The corruption that is currently present within Ugandan football has brought about issues with the government, FUFA, and all the people in charge. More and 12

more scandals are surfacing about the Ugandan football administration such as match-fixing, and corruption at both the club level and a national level (Kavuma, 2009).

Financial influence All the financial projections I made to help allocate the pricing that players will have to pay in order to attend my academy were heavily influenced by already existing prices that were proposed by Kaptiva, alongside already existing prices of international American system schools in Uganda. Below are the tuition projections for Kaptiva Barcelona.

In addition, I also took into consideration current tuition fee prices of American system high schools like: 1. International School of Uganda, whose tuition fee prices were an average of 27,700 USD, when not taking into consideration extra costs such as bus fees and entry deposits. 2. Kampala International School, whose tuition fee prices were an average of 24,888 USD, when not taking into consideration extra costs such as bus fees and entry deposits.

Chapter 3: Body of Thesis

Description of business The aim of this business plan is to create a sports academy in Uganda that will help with the development of sports, specifically football within the nation. The decision to make the academy a football academy, to begin with, was because football is said to be the “king” of sports in Uganda according to Aziz (2019) who also goes on to state basketball as a close second, which allows for the possibility of making it an option for expansion in the future. The academy will be put in place as a startup, as a for-profit company that operates mainly to provide the services of education, coaching, and mentorship of upcoming athletes that are a part of the company. Although this will be a football academy it will also give the athletes an opportunity to continue studying alongside their participation in the academy. Meaning that the athletes will be exposed to a full-on American system, influenced high school education. The academy will be strictly for those between the ages of 13-17 years old, thus, meaning education provided will only be for the high school level. The target audience to attract to the company will be young boys who have an interest in improving their already existing talent within the football industry. We later plan on expanding the academy to give access to girls to also train within the academy. However, due to the number received from surveys sent out (see appendix graph 1.3.), we believe we will be more profitable if we were to firstly open up the academy solely to boys, to begin with. In addition to this, the company will be a limited liability entity, meaning that the owners will not be liable for any company debts or liabilities according to the definition by Kenton (2020).

Ownership The academy will be a privately owned company founded by two partners, Emmanuel Sesay and myself. The legal entity will be registered under the company act, therefore, meaning that as founders of the company will have limited liability. The co-founding will both share a 50% stake in the academy.

Business model In order to find the right business model to suit our academy within the Ugandan market, we looked at the business models that are currently being applied in other academies within other African countries. To help with this I interviewed an agent by the name of Mohamed Kadry from Egypt, who was able to give me a deeper insight into the African market and what he was able to get from the current academy available around African. I found out that there are currently three business models that are being applied within African, which are:

1. Commercial model This is a model where clubs give naming rights to an academy to call their academy Real Madrid Academy for instance. The main purpose of this academy will be to make money. This is because parents will believe that their children will get a chance to sign for a big club like Real Madrid, however, this is never the case, they will only get trained 14

by local coaches. In addition, since these academies have such a renowned partner they are usually very expensive, therefore, they make money from making players pay for the chance to be part of the academy.

2. Low Budget Model This is a model where an academy is actually a football club of its own, thus, players either do not pay to be a part of the academy, rather players are scouted to be part of the academy. This type of business model is used to find talent and develop players. They make money by developing talent and selling players to international teams such as FC Barcelona, Liverpool, etc. A good example of an academy that follows this business model would be Generation Foot, where Premier league club Liverpool winger, Sadio mane began his football career at the age of 15 ("Sadio Mané - My Journey", 2020) in Senegal.

3. Developmental Model This is a model where an academy is partnered with another academy abroad, for instance, the Sports Academy Zurich. They use this partnership as a form of investment where they make an agreement with the academy in Switzerland to provide them with high-end coaches so they can emulate the model of the Swiss academy into their own country and in exchange, the local academy will in some cases provide their top talents to the partnered academy on a scholarship to attend school. This model is used to help with the development of talent and the local academy will make money by ensuring the athletes pay a fee in order to attend their academy.

Below are some of the best academies currently present within Africa who all follow one of the above business models within their academy structure.

It's important to mention that the three competitors currently present within Uganda do not however fall under any of these models as they are all non-profit academies.

With these three models in mind, due to the nature of our academy and the research question I have to put forward for this thesis, I felt it was best to follow a development model, meaning that students will pay a tuition fee that will cover the cost of their

education at the school within our academy, where they will also be able to train professionally alongside studying. Whereas, to add value to the academy we plan to make a partnership with a business school where top students can get an opportunity to gain a scholarship to study abroad. This will make the academy more attractive to parents when looking at our academy.

With one of our founders having been a recently registered scout on the ASM Scholarships agency platform. ASM Scholarships has a mission to help the future sports stars of tomorrow. They do this by finding universities in America that offer sports scholarships for their clients. They then support their clients throughout college until graduation and then connect them with our partners and our world-class sports ambassadors to help our athletes continue their professional sports or employment ambitions (ASM, 2020). Therefore, as a remote scout of ASM Scholarships, you simply have to provide talent to the agency by providing them with the name and contact details of the talented individual. The agency will then get in contact with talented individuals to determine if they qualify or not (ASM, 2020). This will be an attractive added value for talented student-athletes within the region. This is because one of our staff has direct access to the ASM Scholarship network, therefore, the academy can directly identify talented players and put them in contact with the ASM Scholarship network to universities within the different sports divisions within the USA. To determine if the players identified to qualify for a scholarship for an American university or not. In addition to this, this opportunity will also pump some revenue into the academy, as you will get a commission of contract value based on what level of a scout you are. This only applies if the athlete signs with ASM Scholarships (ASM, 2020). The commission scheme goes from 10% for level one, 20% for level two, 30% for level three, After which you can go out on your own when you qualify for franchise status where you then qualify for a 50% commission level (ASM, 2020).

However, our main source of income will be the tuition fees paid by my students to attend the academy. Therefore, meaning that our company has a B2C (business to customer) business model, though, we have some additional sources of income such as the fee students will have to pay in order to gain access to the academy football kits.

Mission and Vision We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to follow their dreams, so we provide young athletes with the facilities to nurture their talents, guidance and proper training to be able to sustain an elite career within and beyond our mentorship. The development of sports and personal growth is our uttermost priority.

We hope to provide the athletes with a home to grow to be the heroes of the nation through the hands of sports and change how people perceive sports in Africa as a whole. WE ARE THE FUTURE OF THE PEARL OF AFRICA, let us make athletes that speak for that!

Services The main goal of my academy will be to provide talented players (boys) with an annual program, to help them maximize their talents and ensure they reach their full potential and an opportunity to sustain an elite career by providing them with a football program that’s fully Integrated. This program will provide players with essential coaching and technical knowledge that will help with knowledge and abilities beyond just their playing ability. With essential training sessions on the importance of sports nutrition, sports psychology workshops, guided gym training sessions so players know how to properly train within the gym, sports nutritionist guidance and regular physiotherapy to ensure the players are physically well and to ensure the prevention of injury. In addition, to football knowledge, the player will also be obliged to attend high school classes, as we believe that education is an important part of a player's personal development. Therefore, the academy will also be equipped with a fully functional American system curriculum high school where all students between the ages of 13-17 years old are admitted to the academy and attend classes.

This program is put in place to help the players grow up to have a professional mindset in life, allowing them to conduct themselves and sustain themselves as an elite athlete without the need and support of the academy in the future, giving the athlete benefits beyond just their playing ability. Therefore, allowing them to grow up having experienced how life would be like if they were professional athletes in the sporting world today. However, it is important to note that attending this sporting facility is not a guarantee of a professional football career, it's a program put in place to help build individuals through the use of sports and education. The chances of making it as a professional football player are not fully granted by our academy, but the experience is put in place to give a chance for some to make it professionally not all. This program allows us to differentiate ourselves from other academies within the country, such as El Cambio Academy which is located in Uganda. However, this is a non-profit organization that’s primary aim is to teach the young boys to change lives through football and education, by making the boy’s they scout the future leaders of the world by encouraging them to give back to those who could not have the same experiences as them (ECA, 2020). Unlike them, we are a go-for-profit organization that is positioned as an elite sporting company. This is mainly because of the qualifications of our training staff and the high-quality facilities we provide for the training of our athletes, alongside day to day school education. This is to ensure to help our students grow as people and give them a future beyond just sports if they are not successful in making it in the professional world.

From information supported by appendix graph 2.5, parents would choose to send their children to our academy because it provides them with the opportunity to nourish their talents alongside also obtaining valuable educational material about the sporting world and health and well being. In addition to getting the day to day education that is provided to children in normal educational institutes. Whereas, children will encourage their parents to let them go to such an institution because it allows them to do what they love on a daily basis, as well as, learn more behind what it takes to be a professional athlete in 17

the world today. With the knowledge that they might also have the opportunity to get scouted from the academy if they are really good. I would say the fact that we provide a European experience of an academy will be what attracts parents and players to our academy as many are looking for the opportunity to be part of such an institution because their parents are hesitant due to the distance of such institutions. Therefore, this gives the players the opportunity and parents peace of mind that their children are just a driving distance away (see appendix graph 2.4).

Marketing Analysis

Uganda football background Football within Uganda is closely monitored by FUFA (Federation of Uganda Football Associations) as this is the governing body of the sport within the country which recognized by both FIFA which is the World’s football governing body and CAF which is Africa’s football governing body allowing the country compete in international competitions such as the WorldCup and African Cup Of Nations. FUFA is under the NCS which is the national sports council that is responsible for the development, promotion, and controls sports within the nation on account of the national government, which lies under the ministry of sports and education (Ogola, 2019).

However, FUFA has been for many years under the limelight due to years of corruption, mismanagement, funding, and irresponsibility (Schatzberg, 2001). With many complaints about the organization being corrupt, it was stated by one source; “Unfortunately, the present administration is lacking. It has received unprecedented sponsorship, both in terms of corporate grants and grants from FIFA. They have received more or fewer billions of shillings. All of this money has been eaten up with nothing to show in terms of development” (Schatzberg, 2001). It was also reported by BBC (2019) that the president of FUFA, Moses Magogo was fined 10 thousand US dollars and suspended from all football-related activities by FIFA, due to his involvement in the reselling of WorldCup tickets in 2014 (Ogola, 2019). This could be the reason behind the lack of the development of football in Uganda, as the governing body that’s meant to enforce order and give clubs, and associations authority and guidance to build academies to aid the development of football seem to be the major challenge the country is facing at the moment.

Market Segmentation With this in mind, my idea is to bring an academy to fix the problem from the bottom and work my way up. The idea is to show FUFA and the league the proper way the football should be played, governed, sustained in terms of player’s health, proper medical teams, proper funding of training facilities, etc. Then maybe the league and FUFA see the potential that the talented players have within the country, and the potential the country has financially through just the sport. With the lack of academics within the country for the primary purpose of the development of the sport, I believe this would be the next step for the country. As academies currently present such as El

Cambio Academy (ECA) in Masaka, Uganda is only present to help children better their lives and learn to be the future leaders of the world (ECA, 2020). Therefore, the facility and training do not match those of international standards, thus, the development of the sport is not a top priority.

This presents an opportunity in the market to bring something that already exists within the market but change the priority of academies by making it a tool to improve upon the talent and potential that already exists within the country (The Agenda with Steve Paikin, 2017). This academy will be located north from the capital in Kitulikire, mainly because my family has land within the city that has the capacity to hold an academy of this magnitude, therefore, the cost of acquiring land to build the facility will be cut down massively. The academy will be available for talented boy football players, who will have to go through a physical test to see whether they are qualified to be part of the academy before they can be a part of the academy and attend school there as well.

Market research results summary: In terms of marketing research, I was able to do a basic survey that was able to show me how many people within Uganda and the East African region would be interested in an Academy within close proximity of their home countries (see appendix Graph 1.4, 2.3, 2.4). This survey allowed me to collect data regarding how many girls and boys were interested in attending an academy, with the consideration that the women's football scene is slowly beginning to boom. The results indicated that there is a higher interest in the idea from the boys in comparison to the girls, but there was still some interest from the girls. With additional recommendations from an interview at the Kaptiva sports academy (Kaptiva Interview, 2020), it was suggested to start off my academy as a boys-only academy. As for them, they have found it quite challenging to attain the right numbers of girls to sustain a full-on training session. Therefore, helping to change my initial idea to make the academy available for both genders. However, within the future, we will consider the possibility of opening up the academy for girls as well when the women’s scene begins to fully boom.

In addition to this, the result of my research was also able to tell that one of many reason children or aspiring athletes within Uganda and East Africa have not been able to pursue a dream of being a professional athlete is mainly because they have either not got a proper opportunity to perfect their talents and get recognized by scouting agents aboard or not having access to the proper training staff, coaching, guidance and training facility to help them excel as elite athletes (see appendix Graph 1.5). In addition to this, I interviewed an old highschool classmate who wanted to pursue a professional career in Football. He was one of the few who took the leap to go abroad and find an academy to help him become something. However, he was also one of the few individuals who were let down by an academy accepting players knowing they can not withstand the capacity they are accepting. Therefore, after only 4 months at the academy, he was told he could not attend the academy anymore due to the financial issues occurring at the academy. Therefore, he has to cut his dream short and return back to reality in Africa, to complete high school (Daniel Interview, 2020).

Main Competitors The thing that differentiates our academy from the rest of the existing academies in Uganda is that will provide proper facilities for players to enhance their abilities, we will provide highly accredited coaches for players to build upon their talents, we provide high school education to ensure the player can still have a future beyond the scope of football. Lastly, the main purpose of our academy is to improve the development of sports which, therefore, positions us differently from our competitors. Although our competitors are growing day by day, improving their facilities and increasing in size, in terms of how many present players are currently being recruited to their academies (ECA, 2020).

I would primary classify my competitors as football academies within the country, however, the present academies within Uganda are not for profit academies, therefore, they are just in place to ensure that underprivileged children are not left unseen, and given the opportunity to have a greater future (ECA, 2020). Below is a list of some of the not for profit academies currently present in Uganda. 1. Football for good youth academy (FFG) a. FFG is a social impact business that focuses on football academy development, player identification, and elite training (FFG, 2020). At the beginning of this year, FFG came together with a partner program in Malawi to found a program called ‘Ascent Soccer East Africa’ (FFG, 2020). This program offers a full-time soccer academy and scholarship to a school in Uganda, this is to provide an opportunity and global pathway for boys and girls. This means that all student-athletes part of this program have no fees or costs to be a part of the Ascent soccer program. They currently work with over 85 boys and girls that have all been carefully selected from across East Africa (ASCENT SOCCER, 2020). 2. El Cambio Academy (ECA) a. ECA is a non-profit organization that helps Ugandan children to a brighter future while giving you a lot of unforgettable experiences. This is done through the use of football and education ECA, 2020). 3. Edgars Youth program (EYP) a. An NGO using football as a tool to get children out of vulnerable situations (EYP, 2020). In addition to these academies, I would also think to put International boarding schools that offer the American school system within Uganda as competitors as my academy will also provide education to the young athletes. Some of the American system schools that currently operate in Uganda are: 1. The international school of Uganda. 2. Kampala international school. My main competitors are all not for profit organizations consequently, they do not provide any information regarding profits and losses throughout the year, hence, this makes my business completely different from my competitors as my academy will be a for-profit organization. Due to this, I do not think that the entry of my business into the market will bring much discomfort to the market. 20

SWOT Below I illustrate some of the strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and opportunities that are currently present within the Ugandan Market.

Strategy and Implementation

Organizational chart The academy will require both in house staff and some outsource services as well. Below is a demonstration of who I will require within my in house services. Whereas, the second chart will demonstrate what kind of services I will be outsourcing to experts.

1. Internal Staff a. Coaches (football, goalkeeper, fitness trainer, technical director). b. Teachers. c. Medical doctor (physician). 2. External Staff a. Grounds staff (Maintenances) b. Marketing firm (advertisement, online marketing). c. Security company.

Management The academy will be run by two co-founders who both have different backgrounds. Emmanuel Sessay one of the founders with experience working within the football industry within Sweden would bring insight about the day to day operation with working with elite athletes at the academy level. His coaching experience and connection within the industry will also help when it comes to recruitment of the right coaches for the academy. In addition, his business experience working at a sports management firm in Sweden will help ensure that everything within the company is done correctly. The other founders' position will be filled by myself. My knowledge of the market and country will be most vital when it comes to negotiations and making deals for the academy with clubs around the region and country.

Human Resources Process Below is an organizational chart displaying how I think the line of power within the academy will flow. In addition to this, I also thought it would be wise to give a brief code of conduct that staff and coaches will have to comply with when within the walls of the academy. This code of conduct will be put in place to ensure there will be a zero-tolerance towards discrimination of any form. Thus, meaning that no student within the academy will be given the benefit of the doubt no matter their race, skin color, religion, sexuality, or gender. This means that there will be a zero-tolerance to behavior from both staff and students that do not comply with these guidelines.

Code of conduct Our code of conduct outlines the expectation we envision all employees at the academy to follow when in contact with fellow colleagues, students, or other members of the academy. However, it should be clear that the academy is open to freedom of expression and communication. The academy will be taking any disciplinary actions towards employees who are in repetitive actions against regulations that are stated within the code of conduct. Some of the following consequences include the following: 1. Termination in the serious occasion 2. Suspension 3. Demotion All employees of the academy are bound to this code of conduct and should, by all means, comply with all regulations stated within it while performing their duties. Below you can find all the regulations that we expect our employees to comply with during their duties at the academy.

1. All Employees must comply with the law. All those employees within the academy must ensure they protect the academy’s legality. This means we expect that all employees are ethical and responsible when dealing with day to day activities within the academy in terms of finances, services, and overall image of the brand. 2. Staff is required to show respect towards their fellow colleagues and students. We do not tolerate any forms of harassment, discrimination, victimization within the academy. 3. All property with the academy must be treated as if it were your own. Employees are not to misuse any equipment given to them. Additionally, employees are to show respect for any Intangible property. This includes our trademark, copyright, information, and reports, such data should only be in use to complete an employee’s daily duties and nothing else. 4. Professionalism and integrity should be shown within the workplace at all means. 5. We have a zero-tolerance towards corruption within our academy, therefore, all forms of gifts from parents or students should not be accepted by employees. In addition, we do not accept any form of bribery with the academy that will benefit either an external or internal party. 6. We expect all employees to comply with their work schedules.

If any of the employees have any further questions they should not be hesitant to ask their managers or the Human Resources department.

Admissions Process The selection of students for the academy will be done through two different methods to ensure that the students attending the academy are both academically fit to attend the education system at the academy as well to ensure they have the proper skill set to be able to withstand the high intensity of the academy. It is very important to note that

discrimination will not be tolerated thus, skin color, race, religion, sexuality, and gender will not be a factor that determines your admission. In order to be admitted into the academy, you must pass both the academic selection process and the football selection process. 1. Academic selection process: students looking to attend this academy must provide the following information during the admission process in order to be considered. a. A motivational letter stating why they want to attend the academy. A grade record of what they have achieved in grades 7 and 8. b. A GPA over the grade of a C+ in grade 8 in Sciences, Math, and English. 2. Football selection process: students looking to attend this academy must carry a current skill level in order to make it into the academy. a. In order to determine if a student has this skill level, they will be called in to do a number of drills. If all drills are passed the students will be contacted within 48 hours to inform students that they have been admitted to the academy. b. Students will only be called in to do drill if they have passed the academic selection process.

Scheduling of the Academy

Below is a picture of how the life of a student at the academy will be like:

Value proposition The one thing that makes our academy and services more valuable than of our competitors within the region is that we are bringing a different experience to Africa. I believe this gives us an edge over our competitors as I believe we as African look to Europe and the rest of the world for guidance and influence. If our company is able to implement a service that already operates elsewhere in the world and make it effective within a growing market that gives us value over our competitors (Mohamed Interview). This is mainly because Ugandan already put value over their own league to the English premiership simply because of the better quality and competitive nature of it in 24

comparison to what their own nation has been able to replicate from it (Mugenyi, 2020). Therefore, by bringing that unique expertise and experience to influence the shape the future of football for Uganda puts my company in value over my competitors.

Marketing strategy My company is selling the service of elite football training alongside high-end education through the American system, as this allows for better integration between the students being able to study and train at a high level (Kaptiva Interview). The main objective of my business will be to provide children with an opportunity to follow their dreams of being a professional athlete, whilst not ensuring them with a backup plan in case, by providing them with high school education in case their main purpose for their life changes. Giving them the opportunity to pursue other career options if need be. In addition to this, another objective of this business will be to help improve the overall development of the nation’s current football level. To help the country progress and get a step closer to the international standards of governing sports within the nation, as the current system that Uganda is using is broken, therefore, affecting the rate at which the currents sports levels are developing mainly due to the level corruption, inexperience and bad leadership at the levels of the sports governing body FUFA (Ogola, 2019). My academy will be marketed under the brand name of Pearl Academy. This will be the name of the academy and the names used in all advertisements made for Pearl academy.

My target audience to market towards will be children between the ages of 13-18 and the parents of these children, who are within the middle-class income status. Within a monthly income of $45,000 and above, this mainly because of the cost they will have to incur in order to get their children to attend the academy.

In order to communicate with my target audience before the launch day of my academy, I will provide them with a pre-launch marketing promotion a year before the completion of the academy. This pre-launch promotion marketing will be placed on billboards around the country. The billboard will give the target audience an announcement of our entry into the market and links to our Facebook page and Website. Our Facebook page will be a platform for parents to get in touch with us directly and find basic information such as launch dates, expected timelines, pictures, and upcoming video campaigns, and a direct link to our website. When on our website, parents and students can find information about our proposed curriculums, pricing of our academy, information about our teachers and coaches, and admissions process. They will also find information about our launch day football camp campaign where students will be able to come to that campus for a 2-day football camp where they will experience two days of high-intensity training with 2 of our coaches. whilst parents will have the opportunity to get a campus tour and see the available facilities and have a chance to talk to coaches and teachers in charge at the academy to gain more information about the academy. All this information will be placed on the website a year before the campaign launch and completion of the academy in order for parents to reserve spots to give us a guideline on how many people will be expected to attend our launch day campaign.

Marketing Campaign In order to gain the support of target marketing in a developing sports market such as Uganda, it is important for us to communicate what makes us special, who we are and why we are doing what we do (Mohamed Interview, 2020). Therefore, we believe it's important to incorporate the two things that currently add value to our academy within the market within our marketing campaign, in order to attract attention from both parents looking for good educational opportunities and students looking for an opportunity to have a chance to make it in their dreams as well as to ensure not all their options are cut short.

For our marketing campaign we plan on doing the following: A week after the completion of the campus contraction we will launch our main campaign that was advertised on our website a year before this day. This campaign will be put in place to give the student a unique experience of how a typical training session at the academy will be like. The campaign will last one day, during which students will be expected to arrive at the facilities around 11 am where they and their parents will get the chance to get an exclusive campus tour. In addition, parents and students will get the chance to meet some of the staff and coaches that will be at the campus and a chance to ask questions if they have any. After which, they will experience a lunchtime at the campus at 1 pm, before getting ready to experience a training session with the coaches. Once the training session is done the campaign will be done. During the duration of this campaign the whole experience will be videoed, therefore, towards the end of the campaign will ask some boys to give a short testimony about their experience at the facilities. This video will be used as a social media campaign on Instagram, and Facebook, giving individuals who could not take part in the campaign a sneak peek of how life is at the academy. Additionally, this will be used as a way to promote our program and facilities all at the same time.

The budget I will allocate towards marketing will be needed for the following costs: 1. Online advertisements. 1.1. We will make use of GoogleAds to make marketing campaigns online, these Ads will be in the form of videos, pictures, and Signage which will redirect a user to a landing page on our website when clicked on. 2. Setting up a website 2.1. We will need to set up a basic website that will provide our target audience with information about the academy, requirements to join, admission processes, photography of how the academy looks like, tuition fee information, etc. 3. Advertising on billboards and newspapers around the country 3.1. We will need to place ads on billboards around the city in addition to small ads on a newspaper that gives parents brief info about the academy and contact information to get in touch with the academy for more information. 4. Social media 4.1. We will create accounts for Instagram, Facebook page, and Youtube. 26

4.2. Instagram will be used to promote content regarding the campus and events, matches, and activities that go on with the campus. 4.3. Youtube will be used as a way to provide content in terms of match highlights of the boys, and marketing campaign videos. 4.4. Facebook will provide information about the academy to parents and students alongside some photos and videos that can all be found on our youtube and Facebook pages. 5. Brochures 5.1. We will make a brochure that will be used to form an advertisement and will be given to anyone who comes for a campus visit during the marketing campaign. In addition to this, the budget will also go towards the hiring of the following outsourced services: 1. Graphic designers. 2. Web designers. 3. Logo designers. 4. Media firm to deal with social media accounts and external marketing. Therefore for the above services, I would probably require an average of $75,000 to allocate to all the costs I will incur for the marketing for my academy.

Pricing strategy We will be using a premium pricing strategy as you can see below, as no other of our competitors are pricing their services like this, in the context our competitors will be high-end international boarding schools. This is mainly because there are no existing academies doing what we are offering in Uganda, therefore, I believe that this accounts for our additional prices as we are offering a completely different experience from what international high schools within the country. The main reason why I think that customers will pay this additional price is first, the amount of interest that has been shown by children within the nation (see appendix Graph 1.2), secondly, the talent that is currently present within the nation (The Agenda with Steve Paikin, 2017), I believe that parents will be willing to pay the additional price if they can clearly see that their children are truly talented, knowing the benefits of pursuing football professionally can bring to one financial (see appendix Graph 2.2).

Finance This section will provide you with various information regarding the startup cost estimation, based on the services I believe that I will need in order to successfully start the academy. The startup cost estimation will be used as a way to determine how much I will be asking my investors to put into my academy.

Startup costs To begin with, I believe it is important to establish how much it would cost to start up an academy, which currently amounts to an average of €748,214.02. In the appendix, Table 1.1 you can identify where all the funds for the startup costs are accumulated from. As you can see in the table the most costly services that I would acquire in order to get the academy up and running would firstly be the building costs. Secondly would be the hiring of a marketing firm to help with the promotion of the academy around the country to ensure that our brand image is well known around the region.

In order to acquire an investor that will be able to give us the amount of money, we will request below. We were able to think of two ways in which we will go about finding the right investor. To begin we have been actively using the online method with thousands of websites online to find investors. We have been using these 3 websites in pursuit to find the right investor. The 3 websites that we have currently been looking for investors are AngelList, Founders Network, and Funded.com. Out of these three websites, we found that Funded.com was the most ideal site for our venture as it was solely designed for entrepreneurs looking to build their dreams by finding the right investor to start their startups (Feedspot, 2020). However, we also found some groups within Facebook and LinkedIn such as Start-Ups, entrepreneurs, and Business owners give a lot of useful information and links to investors looking for new projects to invest within.

Funding request In order to make our academy come to life, we will need to approach investors and pitch to them our business idea, showing them what we are planning to do with their money. However, we believe it's important to illustrate to our potential investors how much we will need from them as well as to allocate where exactly we are planning on spending their money on. Therefore, below we will have provided a fund requesting showing the investors exactly how much money will be needed from them, where this money will all be going towards and lastly we will provide them with a 5-year forecast projecting our income statements, cash flow forecasts, and balance sheets.

We are looking for an investor who can bring additional value to the company in terms of experience within the business world, in addition to bringing in money into the academy. We are willing to offer 20% ownership of the company to our investors, meaning myself and my co-founder Emmanuel will only own 40% each of the company for an investment total of €500,000. The co-founder of the business plan to bring in a

total of €400,000 that will also be put towards the starting capital of the academy to bring with.

All the funds that we are requesting will most be put towards the starting capital of the academy to ensure we are fully equipped to start the academy and get it running smoothly after it has been built. Any additional funds left aside after the academy has been built and is fully operational will be decided upon by the investor for what it may go towards. Therefore, the funds that we are requesting for will be allocated to the following sectors:

This will leave an average of €140,000 left of the investor’s money and an average of €73,000 of our co-founding investment leftover to cover the rest of the startup cost and expenses for the first year of operation.

Income statement According to our projected income statement, our academy is to earn an average of €125,502 in the first year of operation. However, we will incur an average of €150,352, therefore, meaning we will be at a loss during our first year of operating the academy. According to Table 1.2 in the appendix, it illustrated how during the second year of operations we break-even after earning an average of €329,175 and incurring an average of €152,396 in expenses in the second year of operations. Therefore, taking our net profit from €-102,308 in the first year to €39,010 in the second year, showing we break-even after the one of operating. This shows you as an investor with 20% ownership within our academy that we are expected to earn our money back within the second year of operating the academy. This cash flow illustration is of the projected revenues and expenses of the academy without a loan. It's also important to note that we expect a projection of growth for the following 3 years of operations, this is also illustrated in appendix table 1.2.

Cash flow statement According to our projected cash flow statement, our academy is set to have a total outflow of €149,544 and an ending balance of -€24,144. However, in the next year, we had an outflow projection of €151,548, thus, meaning we will are expected to break-even in the second year as we are expected to finish year 2 with an ending balance of €153,481 therefore, we made positive cash flow between the years of 2023 and 2024 as the projected end balance was a positive cash flow as the cash balance between the years increased. According to our cash flow statement, the academy will be losing money in the first year and earning money as illustrated by the income statement. This increase in cash flow is shown by an increase in the cash from operating activities (CFO) of the academy every year as our cash flow shows a positive projection in cash from operating activities (CFO) from the first year to the fifth as illustrated in appendix table 1.3. Our cash flow statement illustrates a high and growing CFO, therefore, signifying a growing business. It also shows that from year 2 we have free cash flow, thus meaning money free from any commitment after our academy has paid off all their expenses. According to our cash flow statement, we have an average of €151,548 free cash after a year of operating in the Ugandan market, therefore, meaning after an initial investment from an investor for our starting capital we will be able to self-fund growth initiatives without taking on extra debt.

Chapter 4: Findings

The research process for this thesis was very entertaining, and engaging mainly because my thesis topic was on a subject I’m very passionate about and enjoy reading about. It allowed me to gain deeper insight into my country and its history in addition to football in African as opposed to how everybody else viewed football in Europe. It also made it clear to me that corruption within African has contributed towards the current levels the world sees the sport being played within the continent today. Therefore, I came up with a research question in the form of a business plan to try to go through the lines of the associations within Uganda and build a venture that helps both my current development through sport and individuals grow and learn at a higher level both through education and sport.

Through interviews, surveys, and internet research I was able to find information to back up my beliefs and ideas about building an academy in my country, Uganda for developmental purposes. I found out about the day to day operations I would have to put into place in order for the idea to come to life. In addition, to the logistical measure, I would have to take within the 2 year building time in order to get the academy running. My research showed me that other individuals besides myself believed that an introduction of an academy into Uganda would help both individual footballers looking to advance their careers and the nation develop massively. It also showed me the potential the country has to link with countries like Egypt if an idea such as this was to be successful.

During my interview with the African agent, Mohamed Kadry. I was able to gain deeper insight into the football business in African and how the Egyptian market is not so different from that of the Ugandan market except for the fact that it's a bit more developed than the Ugandan market. In addition, we also found the Egyptian market is looking for connections within the Ugandan market to bring more talent into the Egyptian league as they do believe that there are promising talents within the Ugandan market. However, due to the fact of corruption, and underdevelopment of the market within Uganda it has been hard from the two markets to come together and benefit from each other as there are no appropriate agencies or academies within Uganda that can be used as a connection point. Consequently, the success of the idea was encouraged in this interview mainly because of the nature of the football market in Uganda. This is due to the fact that football is very attractive in Uganda as shown in appendix graphs 1.1 and 1.2, illustrating the results from my survey on 100 people from Uganda expressing their interest in sports. Mohamed expressed his thoughts stating he believes that an academy in Uganda will be successful as it was a very promising idea for a developing market, as you bring something new and different to an industry that is already very attracted to football, therefore, he believed the success was granted with right marketing of the academy, and the right motivators to attract both parents and students.

On the other hand, during my interview with the operating director and sales manager of Kaptiva, Edu. It was mentioned to me that some of the key resources that I must have in

order for my academy to be successful were the facilities and finances to carry out day to day operations of the academy. It was made clear that without these two resources I would not be able to successfully run an academy. Additionally, we discussed the possibility of a partnership with other academies, and he mentioned that Kaptiva wishes they would have a partnership with another academy to take on some of their players to experience a few training sessions with them or send coaches to the other academy to teach their methodology to the other academy. However, he importantly mentioned that one of the main reasons they have not partnered with an African academy is because they do not understand the main purpose behind Kaptiva academy. He gave an example of Nigeria as a lot of academics have been looking to partner with Kaptiva to send their players there mainly because they are looking to get their players signed by big clubs within Europe. Therefore, he made it clear that it's important that he makes it clear to African academies that Kaptiva is not a tool or pathway to make it as a professional player. However, they are opening to make an agreement with an academy to send coaches to for a training camp, if the logistical matters are handled beforehand, for instance, who is gonna pay for the flight, accommodation, and food cost for the coaches during the course of the camp. Partnerships of this degree can be taken into consideration with the later future, once the current situation has subsided and a relationship can be built between Kaptiva and the respected academy looking for this service. Lastly, the topics surrounding girl's football and marketing of an academy were the two that really gave me good information to input into my academy. To begin with, he mentioned that he was within Kaptiva, moving towards opening the academy for girls. However, following the results of a camp they had to cancel earlier this year, simply because they could not get enough girls to participate. The idea to open the academy for girls was not particularly welcomed warmly by everyone. Mainly because at this point in time they do not believe they will be able to generate the right number to fully hold a training session for girls. However, it is open to any idea that would help or encourage the participation of girls in football. Whereas, surrounding the matter of marketing Kaptiva was able to give insight to some of the ways they are currently marketed. It was clear after the discussion that they heavily focus their market within the social media channels, google ads, and their website. These were the three means of marketing that Kaptivs focused on to attract clients from all over the world to their academy.

The most important interview I had was with Daniel Talisuna, who is a 22-year-old university student in Florida, within a second division sports university. This is following a failed attempt to make it successfully into a fully successfully running academy at the age of 17. This interview was the most important to me because his story and experience was the one that inspired me towards making this business idea. Growing up, we went to high school together and he and his brother were one of the most talented football players I have watched playing football live. So when I heard he had made it into an academy it was so happy for him, because I knew he was going to make and become someone big. After years of trying to convince his parents to let him go to an academy, at the age of 17 he was finally able to convince them. However, after a year of missing school, he was suddenly back, I knew something was not right. When he told me his story, it sparked something inside me to make sure that this does not happen to future talents like him, I knew I had to do something in the future to help. 32

During my interview with Daniel, I asked him to express his feelings about his experience at the Boston Institute of Sports. Upon arrival at the academy, he was not allowed to both study and play football mainly because he had obtained the wrong visa. Therefore, showing that the academy firstly did not provide their students with the right services upon acceptance to their academy. However, this did not phase Daniel as he only wanted to play which he got to do. He expressed that his experience at the academy was good, he was able to train at a higher level than he was used to but it was helpful and he enjoyed it. He also added that it helped him to become a better player than he was when he first arrived at the academy. He was an active player at the academy for a period of 4 months before the academy sent them back to their country due to financial issues, it was claimed. From the short-lived experience at the academy, Daniel was able to tell me in his opinion that he did believe that there is a very high level of talented players in football in Uganda for sure, even in comparison to those he was able to play within Europe. He does not believe that Uganda’s problem is the lack of talent but rather the lack of facilities available for youth players to nurture their skills to grow into better players. He wishes that the idea of a high-level well-equipped football academy was present in Uganda when he was younger as he would have joined it if he had the chance to. Daniel, however, has not given up on his dream to be a professional footballer, he currently actively still plays within his university in Florida trying to catch the eye of the right scouts out there one day.

In addition to interviews, we also conducted some surveys to gain insight into what students and people ranging from the age of 13-25 thought about the idea of a sporting academy in Uganda. We found that an average of 55% out of 100 individuals would attend the academy if it was training solely football as shown in appendix graph 1.1. Whereas, 94% out of 100 individuals would actually be interested in attending the academy. This information was later backed up by a news interview video we found on YouTube with the founder of football for good youth academy in Uganda, who talked about the current amount of talent within the nation and interest level there currently is for football within Uganda (The Agenda with Steve Paikin, 2017). This research helped to prove that there was a market for my idea in Uganda and that youth was keen on having an academy within the nation.

I also conducted surveys to gain insight from the parental perspective to see if they would be open to sending their children to the academy within the country. In addition, to see what criteria were taken into consideration when they were deciding where to see their children to school. From the experience of Daniel, he mentioned the reason he waited so long to join an academy was mainly because of his parents. His parents wanted him to gain an education that included a good level of education, including the sciences. Most academies that he looked into did not include good enough courses to convince his parents to send him to those academies. Therefore, from appendix 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4 you can see the results of the surveys I conducted on 50 parents to gain some insight into their thinking process surrounding the idea of the academy. The data supported the point that Daniel raised about his parents as results showed that 68% of the parents who took the survey wanted the academy to also offer a high schooling opinion with the academy. Whereas, 82% of parents did in fact take into consideration the 33

passion that their children had for the sport which was the case for Daniel when his parents finally agreed to allow him to attend an academy.

However, the conduction of these surveys was my hardest challenge yet during my research as getting youth to fill out forms is not that easy as we sent these forms to so many people however only about 60% or 70% of the individuals we sent them out to actually took the effort to fill out the forms for me. Therefore, although we got a sample size of 100 we hoped to get a much bigger sample size to work with, however, considering the numbers we used to conduct my financials the sample size we used can indeed be a representable sample to support my number as we expect to generate a total inflow of 50 students by our 5 years of operations. In addition, as much as the current situation could have been seen as a challenge to most when it came to conducting research. I actually saw it as a blessing in disguise as it allowed me more time to fully focus on researching and having to work on my thesis simply because I had nothing else to do.

Chapter 5: Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations

Currently, we do not have any partnerships giving our students an academic future within a university, therefore, in the future, we are looking to ensure we secure a partnership with a Swiss business university such as Geneva Business School Barcelona Campus to give our students the chance to go to university with one of the sporting cities in the world. In addition, to a partnership with a university, we also are looking for a partnership with a second or third division club where we can send our talented players to play alongside the study in university to gain experience and have a chance to pursue their professional careers. This is a future endeavor we plan on working on to ensure we are constantly adding value to our academy. In addition, if our academy is as profitable as projected in appendix table 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 we have the possibility of expanding the academy to also training basketball as a second sport at our academy, this is because, as you can see in appendix graph 1.1, basketball was the second most wanted sport that Uganda’s would attend a sporting academy to participate in.

Some recommendations I took into consideration after my interview process with experts from within the football and academy industry. To begin with I believe it would be a good idea once talent has started to generate that the academy works closely with the national league to supply both domestic teams and the national team, the Uganda Cranes with new talents. This would be possible if the academy registers itself as a football entity therefore, allowing the academy to earn extra revenues through an ownership deal between the academy and the club the players go to. Therefore, whenever the player is traded we will receive a percentage from the transfer fee negotiated. Additionally, it was recommended that I focus on keeping my academy an all-boys academy to begin within, after when I’m able to generate a good number of athletes should I open it up to girls. It was also recommended that I ensure that the classes offered offer a good range of selections as this might be a deciding factor for most parents in Africa if their children will attend the academy or not. Lastly, it was recommended to ensure there is a competitive basis to the academy, ensure that we arrange games for the boys to play so that they can be able to judge their levels as players and improve over time.

In conclusion, from information gathered from research, I would say as was well put my Ascent Soccer, “Talent and desire are equally distributed across the globe. Opportunity is not” (ASCENT SOCCER, 2020), therefore, meaning if there is an opportunity to better youth talent within football in Uganda, then demand is deemed to come following the introduction of the idea into the region.

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JgIXmBj9L8OU3oiIwQwZDNCfnhpYQM7vBRI?print=true&nonce=ikkk7afb7a4la&us er=16137829521030050442&hash=hj8m5cetrvqnf8vib8jvthe24oeeme65 (Lecture notes)

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Appendices

Link to Final Financial Projects shown in Appendix tables 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oF29PB4Zd0LCfXZ35iGPMEoU1MBBWuGo TENp54G8G6w/edit

List of people Interviewed for research purposes of this thesis: 1. Daniel Talisuna (Ugandan student-athlete that attended an academy in Europe). 2. Edu ( Operation and Sales director at Kaptiva academy Spain). 3. Mohamed Kadry (Football Agent in Egypt and Africa). Within the references, you can find all the interview questions and answers scripted and referenced throughout this thesis.

Graph 1.1. results from surveys

Graph 1.2. results from surveys

Graph 1.3. results from surveys

Graph 1.4. results from surveys

Graph 1.5. results from surveys

Graph 1.6. results from surveys

Table 1.1. Startup Costs

Table 1.2. Income Statement

Table 1.3. Cash Flow Statement

Graph 2.1. results from parents surveys

Graph 2.2. results from parents surveys

Graph 2.3. results from parents surveys (linked to Graph 2.2.)

Graph 2.4. results from parents surveys

Graph 2.5. results from parents surveys