Following the shocking home defeat at the hands of new comers Wolkite over the weekend, St George suspended Serbian Coach Srdan Zivojnov along with his assistants Zerihun Shengeta and goal keeper Ugandan Emi Ndeyzim. The troubled ship is now under the command of former internationals Salhadin Said and Getaneh Kebede.
The sacking of Zivojnov just halfway through the season might not be surprising for he hardly acted a professional on or off the field. With number of foreign players signed hardly to deliver results and inconsistency written on all over the first round fixtures, the Serbian is said to have been in the blind on major decision makings. Some even suggested his passiveness on the interference of team selection.
Sources disclosed that Srdan Zivojnov’s loyalty was more to his pay check therefore careful never to practice his authority on senior players.
“He very much lacks confidence therefore always careful not to antagonize big name players even at times when they’re poorly performing” suggested a former player who left the club in desperation. “He is not the final decision maker even for team selection therefore the final line-up undisclosed until late into a game” he added.
According to insiders the senior players who are under pressure for failing to deliver what is expected of them are the coup plotters for the ouster of the 47 year old coach who has an eighteen months remaining contract. It is said that he might return home with 18 months’ salary that is not less than three million Birr.
“This is the only way to the veteran players that are on the twilight of their carrier. They sacrificed everyone including the coaching staffs to save their skin and the staggering six digit salary,” remarked a club supporter who said that he is disgusted of the players’ performance.
St George suspend Serbian Coach Zivojnov
Fifa postpones its congress in Ethiopia
Football’s world governing body Fifa has postponed its Congress in Ethiopia, scheduled to take place in June, by three months owing to the outbreak of the coronavirus.
The Congress has been set to take place in the capital Addis Ababa with events between 3-5 June, the day on which the Congress had been set to take place.
This has now been postponed until 18 September. Meanwhile the body’s council meeting will now be held in Zurich or as a video conference in June or July.
Should Addis Ababa stage the event later this year, which will be at the headquarters of the African Union, it will be the fourth time Congress has been held on the African continent in 70 years.
Marrakesh in Morocco was the first African city to host a Congress in 2005, followed by South Africa in 2010 and Mauritius in 2013.
The first Fifa Congress was held in Paris in 1904, with just five member associations attending, and returned to the French capital this weekend with a full house of 211 members present.
The Congress meets every year, where statutes can be amended; where officer bearers are elected and where members can be accepted or expelled. (BBC)
Ethiopian air transport market set to grow 226% by 2037
Ethiopia air transport market is expected to expand by 226 percent over the next 20 years.
The International Air Transport Associations (IATA) latest study indicates that Ethiopian air transport and tourism through the air transport will contribute 14.9 billion dollars to the overall GDP of the country by 2037.
The report launched by assessing three different ways of air transport measures impact to the economy; which are jobs and spending generated by the airlines and their supply chain, the flows of trade tourism and investment resulting from users of all airlines serving the country and the other is the city pair connections that makes these flows possible; “all provide a different but illuminating perspective on the importance of air transport” according to the report by the association.
Currently 1.1 million employees are supported by air transport and tourists arriving by air and in the next 17 years the number is expected to be 2.2 million.
The supply chain is estimated to support 1.5 billion dollar of the GDP and spending by foreign tourists supports a further 2.61 billion dollar to the GDP totaling the sector contribute 4.1 billion dollars to the economy which will be 5.7 of the overall GDP. “If things go well and the government continues to support the sector the number will grow to share the 14.9 billion dollar with the annual passengers journey increasing from 7.2 million in 2017 to 23.5 million a year by 2037,” the report states. Africa is the largest passengers flow trough Ethiopian air lines sharing the 60 percent of the total passengers.
The most important benefits from the air transport passengers, shippers and spillover impacts on the business. Economic flow stimulated by good air transport connections is foreign direct investment creating 18.9 billion dollar FDI to the nation.
“The Ethiopian government’s recognition to the air transport is one of the key drivers of the sector to play significant role on the economic growth of the country,” said Raphael Kuuchi, IATA’s special envoy to Africa.
To increase the contribution the report suggests that the government needs to act at least on four focus areas to further and promote aviation growth and bring more value to the country
Implementation of single African air transport market (SAATM) among Africa will provide a significant boost for aviation in Ethiopia and throughout the continent.
To ensure further infrastructures and investments to maximizing the benefits of the sector, the country should increase investments align with industry growth are demand fit for purpose and deliver required service levels at acceptable costs for users.
The other recommendation set by the association is that Ethiopia needs to improve its Air cargo facilities. Ethiopia facilitation to air cargo throughout its customs and borders regulations ranks 86th out of 124 countries in terms of the world wide air trade facilitation index.
“This rank is not bad but it cannot be said good, the government needs to work on it” said Raphael Kuuchi, “by implementing policy facilitation, friction less movement of air cargo, the country will be able to strength its position as a leading Cargo hub in the region”
“If Ethiopia continued prioritization of air transport long with the four government intervention IATA is providing, the association will help the country to achieve the 226 percent forecast growth,” Raphael Kuuchi added.
Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines said “our main challenges include the attitude to aviation by African governments. We need support from governments, taxes need to be reduced and infrastructure needs to improve. We depend on aviation to connect ourselves and the world. For trade, business investment and tourism, other modes of transport cannot serve us well, governments have to support aviation.”
Ethiopia to develop new port in Sudan
Ethiopia is to complete the formal possessing of acquiring land at Sudan to develop its own port.
In different occasions the two countries agreed to develop a port in Sudan that will be an optional sea outlet for land locked Ethiopia.
After Abiy Ahmed come to the premiership the two countries have strengthened the idea of developing a facility at Port Sudan, a major sea port town in Sudan.
In the latest dialogue, Addis Wog, organized by Office of the Prime Minister on the logistics sector Matios Enser (PhD), lecturer at Addis Ababa University, said that the country should develop its own port in the region.
On the discussion held on Friday March 6, he recommended Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services Enterprise (ESLSE) to develop ports in the region as seeing the experience of others like DP World.
“When the country normalize relations with Eritrea, the Ethiopian Freight Forwarding and Shipping Agents submitted a document for the PM to consider developing ports in a joint manner with Eritrean government,” he told Capital.
“Expressing interest is not enough, action is required since it is a serious issue for the country,” he added.
He further said that there are alternatives in the region that the government will really consider.
Dagmawit Moges, Minister of Transport, told Capital that owning a port is part of the Ten Years National Logistics Strategy issued few months ago.
“We are interested to develop ports and it is one of the interventions in the logistics strategy,” she says adding “but it should be determined by the deal with countries.”
Regarding securing the plot at Sudan she confirmed for Capital that the issue would be one of the areas that will be discussed in the latest meeting with the delegation led by her counterpart from Sudan this week.
A delegation that was led by Dagmawit paid a visit to Sudan and port facilities in the country early this year. Sources said that the current Sudanese delegation visit is the follow up of Ethiopian delegation visit.
Mekonnen Abera, Director General of the Ethiopian Maritime Affairs Authority (EMAA), told Capital that finalizing the ownership of the plot in Sudan will be done in the near future.
He said that the two countries have already agreed to give the plot for the port development, while the remaining process will be finalized in the coming few months.
“I will write a letter for our embassy in Sudan to finalize the process in the near future and I hope the case will be done soon and the embassy will receive the plot,” he added.
He added that ESLSE will be the mandated body to develop the port facility in Sudan.
Roba Megersa, CEO of ESLSE, told Capital that the plot securing process will be developed in the current year but the development might not start soon.
“Developing the area might commence in the coming year,” he added.
Some sort of consignment is coming via Sudan Port currently and Ethiopia also export limited amount of oilseed products through Port Sudan.
Ethiopia’s major port outlet is Djibouti, which enabled to develop the facility significantly compared with others in the regions. Ethiopia has also interest to get stake in Djibouti and the two countries agreed to swap shares on mega facilities in their countries.
Ethiopia also took a 19 percent share on the new development of Berbera Port but it was reported this week that the project is fully suspended.
Ethiopia has also interest to work with Kenya and Eritrea in developing port facilities.
