Africa FootGoal: Mr. Salem, do you think Africa today has the resources to take advantage of streaming?

Salem Ali Al Shamsi : I think one of the panelists has mentioned that if we don’t have the resources or the right foundation it’s always good to benchmark and to learn from what’s happening around. So through collaboration, through maybe getting some investment, through different kinds of resources I would say, it could happen, yes, but it needs to be worked closely with different stakeholders that are in the rights of this game. We all know that some countries have political aspects affecting the game itself so they should reach under the ground in order to organize all those rights, especially streaming. But streaming would be a bit more difficult than the usual rights that TV or radio would have because we can see that no one can stop the internet from spreading so fast. So answering your question, yes it could happen and with the right resources, with the right foundation, I’m pretty sure that Africa could reach its goal.

Africa FootGoal: Can you give us your opinion on the Africa FootGoal conference and how we can bridge between Africa and the countries of the Middle East?

Salem Ali Al Shamsi : Always those kinds of initiatives are a way of building bridges and learning from each other because at the end of the day everyone knows how the talents are in Africa and how the good players, the good games, the good teams are playing in Africa. So learning from each other, learning from different aspects, those kinds of conferences always are the fundamental of those relationships and we as in UAE are very keen on building those relationships with different entities and we are very keen on hosting different countries, different FAs in order to benchmark and to learn. So those kind of initiatives like the FootGoal and the events that are happening, we always like to participate and be part of these events in order to listen to different aspects of the game because at the end of the day football is a game that unites. All of us speak different languages but when we play football it is the common ground that we all like to use.

Africa FootGoal: Thank you very much.