The three-day festival was declared open on Thursday at the Marturion Cinema in Igando area of Lagos where over 100 young male and female footballers had the opportunity to discuss the effect of corruption on their football career and society at large with some social change advocates using creative works like film and documentary as case study.
Football as a tool for social change and the issue of corruption which is endemic in African Football affecting the potency of the beautiful game was the subject of focus at this year's African Football Film Festival.
The three-day festival was declared open on Thursday at the Marturion Cinema in Igando area of Lagos where over 100 young male and female footballers had the opportunity to discuss the effect of corruption on their football career and society at large with some social change advocates using creative works like film and documentary as case study.
Ghana's award winning investigative Journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas' documentary "Betraying the game" Was the curtain raiser for the festival.
This 55-minute expose of corrupt elements in the game of football in Africa was a shattering revelation, which brought some top football administrators like former Ghana Football Association President Kwesi Nyantakyi to a disgraceful end of their football administrative career.
Executive Director of Human and Environmental Development Agenda, a social change and human rights advocacy group, Olanrewaju Suraj, was one of the facilitators at the festival.
He reinforced he need for a holistic approach in tackling the problem bedevilling Nigerian football and by extension sports.
He said, "The way forward is for every stakeholder to come together and fashion out how we want to reposition the sports sector in Nigeria, it is in comatose and what you see right now is facade."
Eze Alloysius, founder of the not-for-profit organisation that put together the African Football Film Festival in it's fourth year, said they will work more with stakeholders in sports to stem the tide of corruption in the sector.
Meanwhile, screening of some of the films lined up for the festival will hold at Gowon Estate, Festac Town in Lagos and Abuja at a later date.