'Arsenomics': The bitter truth for Arsenal and EPL fans

Why should a country be hypnotised by an English Premier League (EPL) title winner when protests against high fuel prices engulf the country, and the Iran war remains unresolved? 

This is even as local football enjoys less limelight and glamour. When did we last broadcast a live local football match?

How many times a year are two of Kenya’s biggest stadiums – Nyayo and Kasarani – full? Think of their location, near the crowded Roysambu-Githurai-Kasarani area, and Nyayo, which is not from Kibra. Don’t Kibra residents walk to town for work? 

Let us be blunt: most Kenyans know more about the Arsenal footballers than about the economics behind the team (Arsenomics). Simply put?

Who makes money from the team beyond our small, local bets? 

Arsenal fans have led me to research football or soccer. The facts will make you either sleep earlier and skip the matches or watch more. To begin with, where is the money in football?  

On top are the media rights to broadcast the matches. Two are the season tickets. Have you checked out how much World Cup tickets cost in the US? 

Teams also sell intellectual property like logos. Add sponsorships, merchandise, and player sales or transfers. 

The last time I was in England, I visited the Manchester United store and bought caps for a few friends and relatives. I’m not a Man U fan. To balance, I also visited the home of Man City. My interests in Manchester were the “Dark Satanic Mills” in Charles Dickens’ novels. I saw none but was impressed by how Manchester has reinvented itself, like Thika.   

Before you celebrate, Arsenal made a loss in the 2024-2025 season! But for most Kenyans, that is a non-issue.

Arsenal won in the just-concluded 2025-2026 season!  Let’s explore this obsession with Arsenal and EPL teams. Every Kenyan, including women, “owns” an EPL team.

That is the power of the media and marketing.  In our youth, musicians and movie stars had all the fame to themselves. You could watch packaged movies in theatres and listen to music through radio cassettes (Gen Z, visit a museum) or a gramophone.

Football could not be that packaged. No one wants to see old football matches like soap operas. Remember Wild Rose and The Rich Also Cry?  We want to see live football and cheer. Then came live broadcasting and streaming; we could not escape the spell of the EPL.  In Kenya, our obsession with the EPL emanates from our lack of investment in football, from stadiums to footballers themselves.

The evidence is there; why do African footballers do so well outside Africa, even helping some countries win the World Cup? Clearly, with investment, any country can become a football superpower.  And it’s not just footfall where investment is in short supply. Golf with all our sunshine is underdeveloped.

We have created a myth that golf is for the affluent, yet even hustlers can play the game. Curiously, some of the top golfers are not affluent; they are students! 

Yet despite someone winning Sh585 million in the master’s tournament, we still have not been jolted into action.

Where is the Kasarani public golf course? Competency-Based Education (CBE) aims to enhance sports by integrating them with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

But where is commensurate investment in facilities? Back to Arsenal, which has now become a cult in Kenya.

The obsession is economic and easy to explain. The economy has not done very well lately, with joblessness stalking the nation and general hopelessness compounded by rising fuel prices and expected inflation.

We are looking for anything to cheer us up, and EPL teams fit that bill so well, particularly if the team is a winner. 

I have asked loudly if “Arsenomics” would be that virulent if our economy were doing well and we had something to celebrate, like unemployment going down or GDP growth reaching 10 per cent per annum. Noted how parties and celebrations have become common amid the current state of the economy? 

Cult label

Don’t believe that “Arsenomics” is about waiting for 22 years to lift the title. It’s more about the state of our economy. That long wait and excitement behind it confirm the cult label. 

Want further evidence? Why do our politicians identify with EPL? Why not Nobel Prize winners? They probably know we want to identify with winners and feel good about it. Ever heard of the middle- and upper-class Kenyans boasting of their EPL football teams? 

Does “Arsenomics” expose our class divide? A thought: Arsenal should float shares like the Kenya Pipeline Company for football-crazy fans to buy shares. 

Before I get brickbats from Arsenal fans, let me pacify them with some history. Are you aware that your favourite team was started by munition workers in 1886, hence the name Arsenal? 

The team is 140 years old. When shall our arsenals roar? With all the youth in Kenya looking for money, we should nurture our football teams and win the World Cup in my lifetime. In whispers, I am a fan of two teams: Shamakhokho FC and Dundori Combined FC.