The Political Economy of Football: Capital, Racism and Africa's Exploitation

Africa is a major supplier of football labour to the global sport. Its players fill Europe's biggest clubs, its fans drive television audiences across continents, and its raw talent enriches the game and boardrooms. Yet when decisions are made that shape football's future, its governance, its commercial priorities and even its global narratives, Africa remains largely on the sidelines. Nowhere is this marginalization more clearly expressed than at the FIFA World Cup tournaments.

Luguterah (2026) identifies factors such as teamwork, sports management and governance issues that are equally important as talent in the creation of the wealth of the sport,[1] but this article focuses narrowly on the game’s labour power and talent because it seeks to uncover the underlying economic, political, and ideological frameworks that sustain African football as a supplier of football labour while Africa remains an unequal partner within the contemporary global football capitalist economy. The article argues that Africa's football marginalization is better understood through the extraction of surplus value from its football labour than through the continent’s football fans watching the game.

Every four years, the FIFA World Cup sells itself as humanity's greatest sporting festival. It promises equality, diversity, and fair competition; yet what is observed is an excessive fixation on individual talent, a commodity easily packaged for exploitation by global capitalism. The fixation on talent in the sport is easy to understand, as star power is a readily marketable commodity that can be easily exploited. Africa, one of the biggest suppliers of talent, has no voice in how this wealth is distributed and benefits little from the wealth.

As Pheko (2026) correctly argues, the wealth accumulated within the sport stems less from the spectating audience and more from the vast commercial, geopolitical, and reputational power FIFA commands.[2] African talents in the game through their skills and “star power” provide some of the FIFA reputational power yet they have no voice. Not only are these players famous, but are also influential. They have the power to shape public opinion, consumer behavior, and social trends and have been exploited by sports multinational companies, such as Adidas and Puma, that sell their image and merchandise. 

The most pervasive challenge of football in Africa is the lack of funding. Despite Africa producing many talents and “star power” in the game, the continent has benefited little from the game. Others capture most of the extracted value, depriving the sport on the continent of the needed capital for its steady growth. A recent study by African Lix identified systemic funding shortfalls as one of the critical barriers impeding the sustainable growth of the game on the continent.^[3]

The continent has given the world stars like Abedi “Pelé,” George Weah, Samuel Eto'o, Didier Drogba, Yaya Touré, Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané and countless others. These players have generated enormous wealth for clubs, broadcasters and sponsors across Europe. Yet many African domestic leagues continue to struggle with inadequate investment, poor infrastructure and governance challenges. The inadequate funding for the sport on the continent mirrors the broader global economy, where developing countries often export resources while wealth is accumulated elsewhere.

The modern World Cup is not simply a football tournament. It is one of global capitalism's most profitable spectacles, generating billions of dollars for broadcasters, multinational corporations, betting companies, sponsors and FIFA itself (see Pheko, 2026). Like every major capitalist enterprise, the profit comes from the extraction of value, the concentration of capital and the preservation of unequal power relations in the sport. As pointed out by Darby (2013) the balance of power within FIFA favours its European members.[4]

The global football revenues are substantial. FIFA revenues alone which represent just a portion of the total revenues of the global football industry stood at USD $7.6 billion in revenue for the 2019–2022 financial cycle with the 2023-2026 financial cycle closing in on USD $13 billion.^[5] Africa occupies a central place in the system that generates this wealth, not as an equal partner, but as one of its principal suppliers of the labour that contributes to the wealth.

Darby, Akindes and Kirwin (2007) studied the role of African football academies in migration of football labour to Europe and concluded the process to be another form of neocolonial exploitation and impoverishment of Africa.[6] Darby (2007) goes further to make historical links between colonial relationships and African football player migration.[7] The football academies provide platforms for the continent’s footballers to be scouted at very young ages and transported to the developed football economies and transformed into commodities whose market value enriches the sport outside the continent.  

Historically, Africa has been susceptible to external exploitation. Amin (1974) attributes this exploitation to a structural consequence of colonialism and neocolonialism and its interplay of historical legacies, and economic dependencies.[8] Rodney (1972) extensively discusses how Europe’s development contributed to Africa’s underdevelopment. It is this economic and political structure that underlies the continued prioritization of foreign football economic interests over the continent’s football development and economy.[9] In other words, the continent’s football export operates on a similar logic to the extraction of its gold, cocoa, diamonds, oil and countless other raw materials extracted by foreign capital.

The pattern is unmistakable and reflects the logic of global capitalism: Africa supplies the labour while Europe captures the surplus. Karl Marx (1867) argued that capitalism depends upon extracting surplus value from labour while concentrating ownership in the hands of those who control capital.[10] Modern football follows precisely this pattern as African players create enormous economic value through their performances, yet ownership of football's wealth remains concentrated in European clubs, multinational corporations and institutions headquartered far from the communities where that talent originated.

The relationship between African football and the global sport resembles colonialism in a modern form. Under colonial rule, Africa exported raw materials while Europe manufactured finished products and accumulated wealth. Africa’s position in the value chain of its resources, factors of production and appropriation of attendant accumulated wealth has not changed, regardless of the sector or the achieved political independence. Today's football economy reproduces the same structure. Africa exports athletic talent while Europe commercializes, brands and monetizes it. African footballers achieve international fame, but African football itself remains economically peripheral. This is not simply a marketing decision. It is ideological.

Marx himself wrote relatively little about race, but later Marxist scholars, such as Robinson (2021) theorized racial capitalism and suggested analyzing racial hierarchy and capitalist development in connection as racialism tends to be present in all layers of capitalism.[11] Capitalism has repeatedly used racial divisions to justify unequal labour relations and unequal access to wealth. Racism is therefore not merely prejudice; it becomes an economic instrument that helps normalize exploitation. Football illustrates this contradiction. African players are celebrated when they generate profits. African football institutions are neglected when they seek power. In other words, the bodies are welcomed but the institutions are not. The labour is valuable, but the ownership is not shared.

This explains why football's anti-racism campaigns for example the English Premier Leagues’ slogan “No Room for Racism” and FIFA’s “Global Stand Against Racism” often appear to have limited effect. FIFA condemns racist abuse in stadiums because visible racism threatens the commercial image of the World Cup. Confronting the structural inequalities and racism embedded within football's political economy would require questioning the very commercial model upon which FIFA's prosperity depends. Such reforms would challenge concentrated economic power and the individual behaviour it engenders. That is a far more difficult conversation.

In a nutshell, Africa's marginalization in the global football economy is the continuation of the extraction of resources from the continent by western capital. It reflects the unequal position assigned to the Global South within international capitalism itself. Expanding Africa's World Cup representation will do little to change this reality. More qualification places do not alter ownership of broadcasting rights nor do they redistribute commercial revenues. They do not transfer control over football's institutions. Nor do they prevent African talent from continuing to enrich foreign leagues at the expense of domestic football development. Representation without redistribution leaves the underlying system intact.

The struggle facing African football is therefore inseparable from the broader struggle for economic sovereignty. Building stronger domestic leagues, retaining greater control over player development, investing in football infrastructure and demanding greater influence within FIFA are not merely sporting reforms. They are acts of economic decolonization.

The question confronting Africa is no longer whether its players are good enough. That question has already been answered repeatedly on the world's biggest stages. The real question is whether Africa will continue to serve as football's labour reserve while others accumulate its wealth. 

The World Cup celebrates competition, but behind the competition lies another contest, one over capital, ownership and power. Until football confronts those realities, its promises of equality will remain constrained by the very economic system from which they derive.

The beautiful game, like the global economy that sustains it, will continue to reward those who own the spectacle more generously than those who create it.

Shaibu A. Gariba, (PhD) is a Pan-Africanist, economist, and environmentalist with over four decades of experience across Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, and the UK. Working across public, private, and non-profit sectors, he specializes in employment policy, labour economics, public-sector reform, productivity, institutional development, and economic transformation. He has taught at Centennial College and York University in Toronto. His research covers African economic development, regional integration, community economics, youth employment, and environmental sustainability. Additionally, he is a football enthusiast and commentator examining the political, cultural, and economic dimensions of African football.

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