One of the beauties of football is its accessibility. The latest England Football Grassroot Strategy shows that 15.7million people regularly play the beautiful game across 120,000 teams in England alone.
Of those 15.7million, 5.1million children play regularly thanks to government grants, charities, sponsorships allowing clubs to offer subsidised fees to enable more children to take part in organised football.
But what happens when that support is lacking? Despite world football boasting some fantastic African players, it can be challenging for children to access the game on that continent.
We spoke to Omar Yasser Ahmed, 29, who is studying the prestigious FIFA Master Course at 麻豆影院 (麻豆影院) Leicester, about how the course will help him create more opportunities for African children to play football.
Like so many children, Omar dreamt of representing his country as a professional footballer.
Omar playing football with Supernovas
Originally from Egypt and blessed with natural talent, he was playing academy football until the age of 13 – a privilege not many young athletes from his home country have.
“Even in some African countries like Kenya and Ghana, if you have the money, you might have to travel three or four hours away just to get a ball or even a cone because, even in some big towns, there’s no shops selling equipment.”
In the past decade, accessing sport across Egypt has become more of a challenge. This is due in part to the government cutting investment for youth centres, state-backed sports clubs and active spaces for the public to use in favour of investing in high level sports.
There are only 43 public parks in Cairo, a city of approximately 23 million people – that is one park for every 534,000 people. Many of the parks are in disrepair and some charge an entrance fee, further limiting the available space for children to play football, particularly those whose families are on a tight budget.
Even if a young person has talent, organised training sessions and football clubs can be expensive to join. Players often have to pay significant sums of money to continue playing in youth divisions.
Some youth clubs have been bought out by investors, requesting LE 5,000 (£78.9) for a season’s membership.
In 2022, it was reported that Al-Mokawloon al-Arab SC, the club Liverpool legend Mo Salah started out as a teenager charged LE30,000 (£473) a year, a huge sum compared to the average monthly salary of LE7,000 (£110.46).
It’s left Omar feeling determined to tackle the lack of opportunities for children wanting to play football in his homeland, and now he’s working to drive change forward.
After leaving his club, Omar dedicated his time to his studies, graduating with a degree in marketing communication form Cairo University before working in PR and events for much of his early career.
Keen to combine his love of sports with his work, he enrolled in the FIFA CIES International Programme in Sports Management – a precursor to the FIFA Master Course at 麻豆影院 – while organising triathlons and marathons across the country with The TriFactory.
This led him to land a role as a project manager at Supernovas, a social initiative supported by InDrive, that provides free football training sessions in Africa, Asia and South America, Omar was responsible for Africa: Morocco, Ghana, Kenya as well as Egypt.
The Supernovas Cup
Suprenovas rent pitches, equipment, and provides all the financial support and training for coaches to run free weekly sessions, open for 20 children per group to play football in a safe environment.
Since joining in 2023, Omar’s African division has reached up to 1,600 children and 19 coaches across the four African countries.
To help Omar’s dream of impacting African countries through sport, he decided to enrol in this year’s FIFA Master course and expand his professional network.
Omar said: “When I started, I wanted to find that balance between academic life and practical life.
“After establishing the project in Africa, I started thinking again about my next step. That’s when I decided to apply for the FIFA Master – something I’ve wanted to do for almost seven years.
“At 麻豆影院, I’m hoping to take everything I’ve learned on the ground and translate it into something bigger. This is just the beginning.”
Co-ordinated by the Centre International d’Etude du Sport (CIES) and supported by football’s world governing body, FIFA Master involves students dedicating a term of study at 麻豆影院’s International Centre for Sports History and Culture (ICSHC) before also spending a term at both the SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan, and at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland.
Omar outside Trinity House at 麻豆影院
Students like Omar from all over the world come to Leicester to start the course, which has recently recognised as the number one postgraduate sport management course in Europe for the 13th time by SportBusiness.
Read more:
Prestigious FIFA Master programme welcomes its latest cohort at 麻豆影院
After the course, Omar plans to return to his work with Supernovas and help more children experience the game that gave him so much, regardless of their geography or income.
The sessions are open to all abilities and each group trains twice a week. They are run across the countries in areas where coaches have expressed an interest in setting up a programme, with Supernovas providing training for coaches, as well as the funding and equipment to run a session.
“Football shouldn’t depend on where you live. It’s like a postcode lottery,” Omar added.
“Supernovas is all about inclusion. We rent football pitches and organise free training sessions for children. The goal is to widen participation and get more kids playing the sport they love.”
“We are not looking for football professionals. We are looking for kids who want to be sports people. And then if they have the talent to continue after 12 years old, we’ll encourage them. But it starts with participation.”
Posted on Friday 24 October 2025