Why African Sports Need More Than Media Coverage and Building the Data and Stories Behind the Game
Uchechukwu Onwughalu is a sports media entrepreneur, journalist and founder of Blaqsport, a Pan-African sports media platform connecting audiences with stories, people and opportunities across African sport. With a background in Computer Science and experience in football media, Uchechukwu combines technology, journalism and storytelling to explore the people, businesses and ideas shaping African sport.
The greatest difficulty when I set up Blaqsport was getting people to listen to my vision: the importance of sharing new stories about African sport, filling information gaps, and building a more complete picture of the game. I expected that if I communicated these ideas, people would understand and respond immediately. I was mistaken.
I quickly understood that while telling stories about African sport is part of the task, the harder part is usually securing the information needed to tell those stories correctly.
The more I talked to players, coaches, scouts, and journalists, the more questions I ended up with. At what point did a player start his career? Which academy shaped his development? For which clubs has he played? What is the true record of his playing career? Which details can actually be verified?
Eventually, the questions took me beyond the podcast and into something I hadn't originally intended: building a player-data project focused on Nigerian football. This project involves gathering and verifying key player information, including biographical details, career histories, club affiliations, academy backgrounds, match statistics, and performance records. The aim is to create a structured, reliable database that helps journalists, scouts, clubs, and other professionals access accurate, useful information about Nigerian football talent.
What happens when the story is present but the information is not?
When I set up Blaqsport, my objective was to tell more stories about African sports and increase the visibility of players, coaches, clubs, and competitions.
However, over time, I came across a more serious question, "What happens when someone wants to learn more about the person behind the story, but reliable information is hard to find?"
Even if a player manages to score goals, move from one academy to another and to a different club, and draw international attention, they may still lack a solid and well-organised record of that career.
That presents a research problem for a journalist, an information problem for a scout, a recruitment problem for a club, and a visibility problem for a player.
It is an infrastructure problem for the rest of the industry.
Stories need infrastructure
Media is usually regarded as the result: an article, an interview, a podcast, a video, or a social-media post. Yet good sports stories rely on information, for example, who the player is, where they came from, which clubs they have been associated with, how their career has developed, and what is verifiable.
Data should not replace journalism; it should complement it.
A journalist can show a player's human side; data can record the player's journey; video can serve as evidence of their performance; and interviews can provide context. Together, they produce something more useful than any single element.
Why verification always matters
A recent moment in Nigerian football made me think again about why reliable data matters so much in this football data ecosystem.
At the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Lagos on 27 September 2026, Ikorodu City beat Enugu Rangers 2–0. Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State, attended the game and later commented on the small crowd and the broader role sport can play in creating opportunities for young people and supporting employment. He said the stadium's capacity was around 10,000, but fewer than 2,000 people attended.
The subsequent discussion focused on the stadium's capacity, and online comments questioned the 10,000 figure, with some suggesting the capacity is actually less than 5,000. This suggests a lack of confidence in the available data, points to a questionable verification process during data collection, and creates widespread misinformation and doubt about which data to trust.
The problem isn't always about coming up with a figure; sometimes it's about deciding which figure to trust.
A number cannot be verified simply because it appears on several different websites. A player's date of birth may be listed differently across platforms, and club and stadium records can also differ from one source to another.
Repetition is not verification. When we collect information at Blaqsport, I increasingly think about three questions, "What was the source of this information? When was it last verified? Could anyone else check it?"
We don't want to pretend that every number will be perfect. Instead, we wish to be clear about what we know, where this knowledge comes from, and where uncertainty still exists.
The opportunity exceeds the statistics
When people hear “football data,” they usually consider goals, assists, possession, and passing percentages. The opportunity is even greater.
Picture following a young player's career from his time in the football academy through to domestic competition and on to international football. Picture having reliable information on where players trained, who coached them, the positions they played, and their progress and performance.
Picture clubs and scouts identifying talent using the information available in African football, instead of relying mainly on dispersed sources.
The way I am carrying out the player-data work at Blaqsport is in this direction. Our aim is not to produce yet another list of statistics, but to investigate how structured, verified information can make African football easier to understand, discover, and connect. For example, last season we worked with a local academy that was struggling to promote its best players to professional clubs. By pulling together verified data on each player's match performances, training history, and club affiliations, we created clear profiles scouts could trust. As a result, two previously overlooked players were invited to trials with top-tier Nigerian clubs and are now playing at a higher level. This experience showed just how much difference reliable information can make, not only for players and clubs but for everyone invested in developing African football.
Technology can help, since structured databases, digital forms, cloud storage, and AI-assisted video analysis can organise large quantities of information; however, it does not eliminate the need for human verification.
Although AI can process information, it should not treat unverified information as true.
Building the ecosystem together
Improving sports data in Africa should not be left to a single media organisation.
The system works when clubs supply player information, coaches comment on development, and journalists conduct interviews and produce match reports. It can then add real value by tracking all-round player development through scouts' observations, which standard statistics don't capture.
The value comes from combining these viewpoints, checking sources, verifying information, and keeping records up to date.
That means trust is also needed. Clubs have to know how the information will be used, and platforms have to be clear about what has been verified.
Setting up this type of infrastructure also demands personnel on the ground, technology, time, and money; it is advisable to begin with a small, manageable group, set up a verification procedure, draw lessons from it, and then expand. For anyone working in African sport, a first step could be as simple as tracking basic player data, such as appearances, goals, and clubs, locally within your team or academy. Coaches can create a shared spreadsheet, scouts can keep more detailed notes, or clubs can agree on a few key details to document more rigorously. Even small actions, like routinely recording match results and basic player info, help lay the foundation for a stronger information ecosystem. The process does not have to be complicated to make a difference, and every contribution brings us closer to addressing the broader challenges together.
What building Blaqsport has taught me about entrepreneurship
Blaqsport began by focusing on storytelling. The more I got involved, the more opportunities I saw to link media with data, technology, talent development, and the wider sports economy.
This has changed how I think about entrepreneurship: you don't need to know a business's final shape before you start; the problem itself can show you the next opportunity.
My experience has taught me one principle: "To understand the problem better, you need to get close to it."
My interest in sports data grew because, during my work in sports media, I kept running into information gaps.
From stories to infrastructure
I began with stories; they led to questions; the questions revealed information gaps; and those gaps showed the need for better systems to collect, verify, and organise sports information.
Blaqsport's aim goes beyond telling more stories about African sports and how they interact with the wider sports world, because it also wants to create a situation where those stories are supported by accurate information and linked to the people who can act on them.
That is the direction I want Blaqsport to keep exploring.
The bigger opportunity
African sports have remarkable stories and enormous talent. Sustainable growth requires stronger connections between storytelling, data, and tech. That's where sports media entrepreneurship becomes interesting.
The question is no longer only, "What story should I choose to tell?" It is also, "What problem does this story show, and what might we be able to construct from it?"
I am still on this journey with Blaqsport.
What might we construct together?
I want your input if you work in sport in Africa as a player, coach, club official, academy member, scout, journalist, technology professional, or sports-business leader. If you are interested in sharing your perspective, contributing information, or joining a pilot group, you can get in touch by sending an email here or filling out the contact form on our website. Please reach out so we can start a conversation about the challenges you face and work toward solutions together.
What information do you believe is missing from African sport, and what could we build together to improve it?
No single organisation will build the future of African sport. Collaboration, better information, and collective knowledge will build it.
Read more from Uchechukwu Onwughalu
Uchechukwu Onwughalu, Sports Media Entrepreneur
Uchechukwu Onwughalu is a sports media entrepreneur, journalist and founder of Blaqsport, a Pan-African sports media and storytelling platform. Through Blaqsport, he has developed coverage across football and other sports, connecting African sporting stories with audiences in Africa and internationally. He has covered major African football competitions and built relationships with athletes, coaches, journalists, clubs and sports professionals. His work focuses on African sports storytelling, sports business, talent development, data and the evolving role of technology in sport.
