Africa Judo Union (AJU) is worried about the high number of top Africa judokas acquiring new citizenship especially in Europe with a view of representing their adopted countries at major events.

AJU chairman Thierry Siteny from Madagascar noted that these foreign countries entice the judokas with educational scholarships, citizenship, good facilities and good remuneration.

“These upcoming judokas who come mostly from humble backgrounds find the offers irresistible especially when they look at the new good life that is in front of them,” said Siteny during the second and final day of the AJU Consultative Meeting in Nairobi.

“This is something that we must stop by giving hope and a good future for our judokas on the continent,” said Siteny adding that one way of mitigating this is through the provision of good facilities and construction of centres of excellence and development in the continent.

“We have potential but most African countries lack good management, leadership and more so integrity,” explained Siteny, who was accompanied by Kenya Judo Federation (KJF) president Shadrack Maluki. “We must have good plans for our judokas hence this Nairobi meeting.”

Siteny noted that some of these European countries “steal” judokas from Africa when they are still young after realising their potential.

“The time is now to explore ways of having these talents stay and fight for their home countries in Africa,” noted Siteny, who singled out France as one of the countries whose national teams has many naturalised players.

Siteny said Centres for Excellence and Development across Africa where potential judokas are trained as well as given educational scholarships will help arrest the trend.

“That is why we have our first centre in Marrakech, Morocco that will be complete in three months with Nairobi set to host the second centre,” said Siteny.

AJU director for technical and competition, Alain Kingue Dihang from Malawi disclosed that 33 African judokas that comprises 16 women have so far qualified for Tokyo Olympic Games.

Dihang said that more judokas are expected to qualify from the Africa Championships starting May 18 in Casablanca, Morocco and Judo Grand Slam Antalya, Turkey due April 1 to 4 this year.

Africa was represented by 28 judokas including one from Kenya during the 2016 Rio Olympic Games but none of them won a medal.

A national team of 18 judokas and seven officials left the country on Sunday dawn for the Judo Grand Slam Antalya due April 1 to 4 in Turkey.

“Our Judokas will be chasing for points that will be vital for ranking and qualification for the Tokyo Olympic Games,” said Maluki adding that five of his players have a high chance of qualifying for the Tokyo Games.