RUGBY AFRICA PRESIDENT HERBERT MENSAH: AFRICA MUST BUILD ITS OWN SPORTS FUNDING MODELS

By ASVG Media

Rugby Africa President and World Rugby Executive Board Member Herbert Mensah has called for a new generation of African-led sports funding models, pointing to Uganda’s successful staging of the 2026 U20 Barthes Trophy as evidence that federations can combine local investment, government support and commercial partnerships to build sustainable competitions. Uganda has now hosted major African men’s Fifteens tournaments for three consecutive years, including the 2024 and 2025 Rugby Africa Cups, while assuming a substantial share of the financial and logistical responsibility. The latest tournament ended with Kenya defeating Namibia 33–14 to claim a record fourth Barthes Trophy, but Mensah believes the bigger story is the infrastructure being built around African rugby. With Rugby Africa operating with what he described as only £650,000 annually for tournament hosting, Mensah warned that the continent cannot stage enough competitions or develop sustainable pathways without widening its funding base. His message was unequivocal: “Sport is big business,” and Africa must increasingly treat it that way.

Mensah pointed to Mali’s government-funded 2026 UFOAR Zone B Tournament as another emerging model, while identifying Morocco, Tunisia and Ghana among countries pursuing opportunities to stage regional events. His argument has implications well beyond rugby: African sport cannot depend indefinitely on international federation allocations or a handful of reliable host nations. Governments, corporations, investors and national federations must increasingly share the cost of building competitions that create athletes, audiences and commercially viable sports properties. Uganda will provide another test case when it hosts the World Rugby SVNS 3 2026–27 Africa Qualifiers in September, but Mensah insists the responsibility must spread across the continent. With Africa possessing an extraordinary athlete base and an increasingly valuable consumer market, the opportunity now is to turn participation into sustainable sports economies—built, financed and ultimately owned increasingly by Africans themselves.