Soccer in Ethiopia

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Football isone of the most popular sports in Ethiopia . Football hasprobably beenplayed in this countrysince 1924 . The various political upheavals are also reflected in the history of this sport. The only international success was winning the African Championship in 1962 .

The club names through the ages

Many Ethiopian football clubs have changed their names several times in the course of their history. For the sake of clarity, only the current club names are given in their English form. In the tables, the name valid for the relevant season is put in brackets. The club name in its "mother tongue" is given the addition aka .

To pick out two (complicated) examples:

  • Saint George Football Association (short name St. George , Amharic Kedus Giorgis ) was founded under this name in 1936, forcibly renamed to Littorio Wube Sefer during the Italian occupation, continued to play as St. George in 1942, called himself Brewery in the 1970s , around 1991 to adopt the founding name again. So aka Kedus Giorgis or (Littorio Wube Sefer) or (Brewery).
  • Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (short name EEPCO ) is Amharic Mebret Hail and earlier Ethiopian Electric Light and Power Authority (EELPA) , a factory club of the company of the same name, which was restructured and got the new name Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation, which in turn refers to the name of the club.

Early football history

Football in the East African country of Ethiopia has been used since 1924. Presumably, the game was introduced by European foreigners in the capital Addis Ababa . The first meeting between a selection of Addis Ababa and a selection of French navies from the French Somali Coast colony in eastern Ethiopia (now Djibouti ) took place in 1935 . The game that ended 3-1 for the city selection is considered the first unofficial international match. The Armenian student Yervant Abraham scored three goals in this game .

In December 1935, young men who lived in the neighborhood of St. George's Church founded the Saint George Football Association , the country's first football club and still Ethiopia's most successful club to this day.

During the Italian occupation from 1936 to 1941, the Ethiopian teams were banned from playing against European teams. The Italians established a “Indigenous Sports Ministry” and all of the city's Ethiopian teams had to be renamed. Saint George became Littorio Wube Sefer , the Kabana team became Villa Italia , the Sidist Kilo team became Piazza Roma and the Gullele team became Consolata . The original names refer to districts in Addis Ababa.

Just one year after the liberation, in 1942, despite the five-year, sometimes brutal, occupation by the Italians, the first game was played against a foreign team. Saint George won 4-1 against Fortitudo, a selection from the Italian (!) Community in Addis Ababa.

Organized soccer in Ethiopia

In 1943 the Ethiopian Football Federation was founded, which joined FIFA in 1953 . The first official championship games were played in 1944, the first cup games in 1945. The Supercup has existed since 1984, in which the winners of both competitions compete against each other. The most successful teams are the Saint George Football Association and Mechal . The Ethiopian national soccer team won the Africa championship title in their own country in 1962.

History of the championship

The first Ethiopian championship took place in Addis Ababa in 1944 with five teams. It was "international" as the various international communities participated:

  • St. George (Ethiopian)
  • British Military Mission Ethiopia (BMME) (British)
  • Fortitudo (Italian)
  • Ararat (Armenian)
  • Olympiakos (Greek)

In the first final, BMME won against Fortitudo.

Only in 1953 were teams from Eritrea and Harar allowed to take part in addition to the teams from Addis Ababa and Shewa . The national champion until 1966 was determined in Addis Ababa through playoff games of the regional champions from Shewa, Eritrea and Harar. In 1967 the first national league was launched, in which the eight best teams in Ethiopia - three each from Shewa and Eritrea and two from Harar - played the championship in a first and a second half.

In the course of the secession of Eritrea, the teams from this province withdrew from the league in 1974. After Mengistu Haile Mariam came to power in Ethiopia and the associated political upheavals in the country, all associations were dissolved in 1978 and replaced by teams subordinate to the army, universities, trade unions and political organizations following the socialist model. This new league was restructured in 1983.

In 1997 the "National League" was founded, in which the Ethiopian champions were determined nationally among eight teams with a return leg. Since the 1999/2000 season the league has been called the "Ethiopian Premier League", in which only 14 teams play and since the 2005/06 season 16 teams play.

Participation in international club competitions

Ethiopian football clubs never got further than the second round in the African Champions League .

National team

See main article: Ethiopian National Football Team

The Ethiopian national team played their first game on May 1, 1947 against Djibouti and won it 5-0 in Addis Ababa.
In their early years, the walyas (ibex) played a good role in African football. After finishing second and third, the Ethiopians won the title in their own country at the African Cup of Nations, which was held for the third time in 1962 .

Since the end of the 60s there has been almost no sporting success. The national team was one of the weakest in the African Football Association . Since then, Ethiopia has only qualified twice for the African Cup, never for the World Cup . It wasn't until 2005 that there was an upswing, with the national team climbing 23 places in the FIFA world rankings .

The women's national team played for the first time in 2002 at the African Women's Championship. There they were eliminated in the first round. In 2004 they reached the semi-finals and finished fourth.

Teams in the Premier League

Football stadiums

The largest stadium in Ethiopia is the Addis Ababa Stadium with a capacity of 35,000 spectators. The clubs Saint George and Ethiopian Coffee play in this stadium. In Addis Ababa there are three other small stadiums with a maximum of 4,000 seats. In Awassa and Dire Dawa are the two next largest stadiums in the country with 25,000 and 18,000 seats.

Surname societies city capacity
Addis Ababa Stadium St. George SA; Ethiopian Coffee Addis Ababa 35,000
Awassa Kenema Awassa City Awassa 25,000
Dire Dawa Stadium Dire Dawa 18,000
Oromiya Wonji Stadium Wonji sugar; Muger Cement Ambo 14,000
Dessie Stadium This 10,000
Tigray Stadium Guna trading; Trans Ethiopia Mekele 10,000
Harar Bira Stadium Harar Beer Bottling FC Harar 5,000
Bankoch Stadium Ethiopian Banks SC Addis Ababa 4,000
Adama Stadium Adama City Adama 4,000
Nyala Stadium Nyala Addis Ababa 3,000
Insurance Stadium Addis Ababa 2,000

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