During a conference concerning the professionalisation of sports in Africa held in Senegal last Sunday, the secretary general of the Confederation of African Football, Hicham El-Amrani, held a roundtable on the shift of African football from the amateur to the professional level.

“It is a problem of organisation, structure and the speciality of the key players. You cannot make huge steps; it’s a slow and constant process,” El-Amrani was quoted as saying by Senegalese newspaper Le Soleil.

“Some countries have realised the switch into professionalism, such as South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and at a lower standard Algeria. Senegal is also on the right path.

“I hear voices say that you must have big resources to achieve that goal, but that is not true, because you accomplish your project considering your options. Not all the clubs must have Manchester United’s merchandising style,” he added.

“Revenues are also generated by popularity. That’s the case of Egyptian clubs with the likes of Ahly and Zamalek who were founded a century ago and were able to entertain and keep their audience.

“Now they are concealing these gains. They developed their structures and provided a good atmosphere for the players to keep them in the country and not running after foreign adventures. Egypt is an exceptional case and a role model in the professionalism of African football. The Egyptian national team are seven-time African champions with a squad that is mostly composed of locally based players,” El-Amrani explained.

The Egyptian Football Association is currently facing fierce criticism for the lack of organisation of revenues and the current anarchy concerning broadcasting rights. However, El-Amrani ignored these issues and pointed instead to the increase in gains.

“Today, match tickets are only considered to be around 20 to 25 per cent of a Egyptian clubs' revenues. The rest comes from broadcasting rights, advertising, sponsorship deals and partnership deals with African and European clubs.”

Football has become a major investment in Egypt over the past decade, with the industry valued at billions of Egyptian pounds. Investment has been consistently increasing in spite of the country’s current instability. In one case, Etisalat Telecom signed a three-year record-breaking sponsorship deal with Ahly worth LE 135 million (around $22.5 million) - almost double the previous contract, which was won by Vodafone in 2008 for around $12.5 million.