The head of International Academies/Soccer Schools at Liverpool Football Club (LFC) arrived in Mauritius bringing “LFC to people to show how special the club is” and promising that our football players “will be coached the same way as the Liverpool players”. What great news to lift the spirits of Mauritius, particularly the thousands of Liverpool fans!

And since everything has become politicised in an election campaign that has lasted for the last five years, the prime minister, Pravind Jugnauth, jumped on the opportunity to do what he does best: take all the credit for an academy that hasn’t even started yet: “The idea of developing a high level academy was first mentioned in the 2018/2019 budget. I have given the matter personal attention. We had to get football back on track in Mauritius. At my request, discussion was initiated with LFC for the setting up of an international academy (at Côte d’Or).”

I don’t want to rain on this beautiful parade nor spoil the fun of Liverpool fans. In fact, I like grand projects so I am very fond of the idea of having our youth trained by Liverpool bigwigs in the Rs5 billion grand project of Côte d’Or. I also find the grand idea announced by the Economic Development Board chairman, Charles Cartier, of using our academy to train footballers from other African countries very exciting.

I however have a couple of questions which, as a taxpayer, I am legitimately entitled to ask: First, how much is this grand move costing us? What is the cost of celebrating a foreign club at the expense of our own unsung heroes? Wouldn’t it have been better and much more cost effective to empower our own coaches and clubs – instead of closing them down as we have been doing – and give our sportsmen and women the means to train in similar conditions as in other – even African – countries? Wouldn’t it be cheaper and more motivating if our athletes were treated with more dignity?

You will recall that in the last Commonwealth games, our sportsmen and women – the real heroes who were fighting for our flag to fly high – were given no money while abroad. The minister of sports, on the other hand, drew Rs500,000 in per diem just for standing – dressed in orange from head to toe – and watching the games, while the secretary of our Olympic Committee was busy harassing a young athlete. And don’t forget that because Stéphane Buckland has refused to show a morality certificate, he was denied even the meagre allowance he was entitled to.

“We buy a brand and brag about our ambitions to become a training centre for Africans. Quite funny actually! If we only looked around us, we would have a good lesson in humility”

But there is no shortage of money for our big, prestige projects: while we already have an existing training centre, we build Côte d’Or; while we already have an Olympic swimming pool recently renovated at the cost of Rs69 million, we rush to build another one for Rs760 million! And now we buy a brand and brag about our ambitions to become a training centre for Africans. Quite funny actually! If we only looked around us, we would have a good lesson in humility. As far as football is concerned, even Madagascar, with no money, no brand and no disproportionate ambition is doing better than us. They have just taken on Nigeria, beaten it and made it to the final stage of the Africa Cup of Nation games! And, it’s good to know that for the Indian Ocean Island Games, they are sending their national football team C to play us. And these are the people we are aiming to train?

Sport is a discipline built around some very important qualities. One of them is passion. That can come back only through a vibrant national policy involving our own heroes. A branded coaching academy cannot replace that. It is time our leaders got their priorities right!

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