The Rise Of African Football; A Myth Or Reality

The ongoing FIFA World Cup in South Africa has probably been the most exciting World Cup in ages. We have had some exciting matches and some so-called big guns including 2006 World Cup champions Italy, runners up France and eternal pretenders going home before the quarterfinals. Obviously the shocks that have occurred are part of the reason why I have personally dubbed this competition the ‘Obiara nye Obiara’ World Cup. In other words, this could still be anyone’s World Cup. The focus of this piece will be on the performance of the African nations that took part and perhaps, some suggested solutions.

To be blunt, the so-named ‘African Challenge’ fizzled out and whilst it is fortunate for the continent that the Black Stars of Ghana is still keeping the flame blazing, it is the end result of the many problems bedeviling African football. Corruption, interference, over-reliance on certain players, lack of ambition and the presence of a massive inferiority complex are just a few of the reasons why Africa’s representatives did not do well at the World Cup. With the exception of Ghana, every other country was eliminated at the group stages and it is interesting to note that most of the players playing for these countries won things at club level in Europe and an argument could be raised that since African players are doing well in Europe and so African teams should do well, but maybe it does not necessarily follow. For example, Ivory Coast captain Didier Drogba won the league and cup double with Chelsea in England, as well as the top scorer award in the English Premier League with 29 goals. Team-mate Salomon Kalou was also an integral part of this triumph, contributing 12 goals in the process. Another team-mate Yaya Toure won the Spanish La Liga title in Spain, Didier Zokora secured UEFA Champions League qualification with Sevilla and Gervinho also helped French club Lille to secure qualification into the Europa League. Cameroon captain Samuel Eto’o won the league, cup and champions league with Inter Milan, team-mate Stephane Mbia won the French Ligue 1 title with Marseilles, and defenders Sebastian Bassong and Benoit Assou-Ekotto helped Tottenham Hotspurs achieve champions league qualification. And yet both teams failed to make it past the first round. In the case of Ivory Coast, one of the major problems was a lack of belief. The Elephants, according to Kolo Toure’s own admission, were a collection of talented individuals but were not a team. Indeed, former coach Vahid Halilhodzic alluded to that fact when he was fired after the Ivory Coast lost her African Nations quarterfinal match against Algeria, stating that he could not unite the team. Perhaps new coach Sven Goran Eriksson managed to bring the players together as a team, but Ivory Coast lacked bite in their opening game against Portugal and perhaps the decision to start star striker Drogba on the bench was in the long run ill advised, because the Chelsea star scored in the other two games against Brazil and North Korea. Ultimately, the goalless draw with Portugal, which was at the time seen as a good result, became the reason why the Ivory Coast was eliminated after the first round, despite getting 4 points. If the Elephants had gone for the kill against the Portuguese, then perhaps their World Cup would still be on-going. Of course, questions will always be raised about why Halilhodzic wasn’t allowed to continue with the team and how Erikssom bagged a reported amount of 3 million pounds for the World Cup and would go off after failing to get the Elephants past the group stages.

As for Cameroon, they have quickly morphed from the Indomitable Lions into the ‘Easy to Conquer’ Kittens. Cameroon’s World Cup campaign got off to a terrible start and after one point from their opening two games, the local federation hired former French international Paul Le Guen to steady the ship and Le Guen, to be fair, got the team through to South Africa but there were cracks at the seams. Even though his decision to hand over the captaincy of the team to Samuel Eto’o was justified, clearly it created factions within the team. There was the Eto’o ‘group’ and there was the Rigobert Song ‘group’, which included the likes of Geremi and the former captain’s nephew, Alexandre Song. There was disunity in the team and the wedge grew even wider after the African Nations Cup in Angola, where Cameroon lost to eventual champions Egypt in the quarterfinals.

Unfortunately for Le Guen, critics had begun to cite his perceived lack of knowledge of ‘local realities’; meaning that he had yet to get to grips with getting the best out of his team. Also, there were allegations that he had allowed Eto’o too much influence as per team selection and that could probably explain why the likes of Geremi, Alexandre Song and Achille Emana did not start against Japan. Indeed Stephane Mbia, who is an accomplished midfielder started at full back and Eto’o was playing as a provider to the likes of Pierre Webo and new boy Eric Choupo Moting. Cameroon lost that game and proceeded to lose the other games as well. Clearly a lot was wrong with team spirit and Le Guen, after initially refusing to resign, eventually did so. Cameroon’s press officer Linus Pascal Fonda has come out to accuse officials, journalists and members of Cameroon’s football governing body, FECAFOOT, of being responsible for the team’s performance, telling pressmen that the players had to bear majority of the blame. According to Fonda, ‘Some players, ‘with their oversized ego problems, thought they had acquired land titles in the national team.’ He further added that, ‘Some players on the bench were jubilant when the opposing team scored. There were quarrels, a lot of hypocrisy, an acute lack of serenity, an implacable hatred between team-mates, but also a lack of knowledge of local realities by the coach.’ The Cameroonian minister for Sports, Michael Zoa will be grilled by his country’s parliament on Friday to explain the debacle of South Africa. Lessons clearly need to be drawn from this.

For the second time Amodu Shaibu qualified Nigeria for the World Cup, for the second time he took them to third place in the African Nations Cup and for he second time, he was fired. Sometimes one wonders what is going on within the corridors of the Nigerian Football Association as per decisions taken. If the NFA knew that Amodu was not going to win the respect of the players, why was he appointed in the first place? If he has been able to qualify the Super Eagles for South Africa, then why was he not given the chance to carry on after the African Nations Cup, since Algerian coach Raabah Saadane was given the chance to do so in spite of a fourth place finish in Angola? Why is there such a fascination for last minute appointments of foreign coaches before major tournaments? For me, poor preparation cost the Nigerians, coupled with a shocking inability to replace some ageing stars in the team, as well as players who were off form. Add a propensity to self-destruct plus a huge inferiority complex, and you will begin to see why the Super Chickens…..oops sorry…Eagles were eliminated so early, especially when they held the advantage against Greece and South Korea, only to blow it. Also, there are serious questions asked about $120 million generated by the Nigerian Presidential Task Force as a fund for Nigeria’s World Cup campaign. According to mtnfootball.com, the NFA has only received about $20 million so far, and indeed had to source other streams of revenue to pay national team players their bonuses during the African Nations Cup. At the risk of sounding very controversial, it is an open secret that many African teams use over-aged players at age tournaments. I remember seeing some great talents like Stanley Okoro when Nigeria’s Under 17 national team, the Golden Eaglets hosted the FIFA Under 17 World Cup last year. The likes of Okoro could easily have been incorporated into the senior team because clearly Okoro would have fit into the scheme of things, because lets face it. Were they really 17 year olds? At least the good thing is that the NFA is going down the long term route by offering Swedish coach Lars Lagerback a long-term contract, but all that has been thrown out of kilter with the announcement by Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan withdrawing Nigeria from international football for the next two years so that proper structural changes can be made to football in the country. It is very sad, isn’t it?

South Africa was probably the best prepared African team for the competition and a lot was expected from them in this competition. Carlos Alberto Parreira, in two stints with Bafana Bafana, did his best to bring the team up to a level comparable with the World’s in-form teams, but when it mattered most, South Africa lost their steely resolve. After an encouraging 1-1 draw with Mexico, they were expected to improve against Uruguay but simply failed to turn up. They were much better against the French, but clearly there was a lack of quality in the team and it wasn’t just due to absences. The South African national team had been retrogressing since 1998 and after the first round exit eight years ago in the 2002 World Cup, very little was done in terms of rebuilding the team until Parreira took over. To be fair to him, he has left a solid foundation for others to build upon to make South Africa a force in African Football team.

Incorporating the likes of Kermit Erasmus and other players who reached the second round of the World Youth Cup last year plus maintaining the team, allied with proper preparation should however do the trick for Bafana Bafana.

The Algerians suffered from failing to hold their nerve when it mattered most. Perhaps it was bound to happen when they fell to pieces during the African Nations Cup semifinals against Egypt and lost 4-0. Again, in the opening fixture against Slovenia, the Algerians looked in control of the game for the most part until Abdelkader Ghezzal got himself booked and then handled the ball, resulting in a sending off. Slovenia eventually won the game 1-0. They played well against a poor England team, but were unable to hold the US off for the full duration of the game. A lack of quality upfront was another reason because they were the only African side that failed to score in South Africa.

Perhaps the time has come for such countries to learn a lot from the Black Stars, whose coach Milovan Rajevac has shown that he is no respecter of reputations and will only pick players who will do the job for him. Because of this, there is fierce competition for places within the team and so the era of over-reliance on certain players is long gone. There seems to be a major mentality switch as well and that is why Ghana has become Africa’s leading light in South Africa. This is not to say that all is perfect where Ghana is concerned, but for now, it is paradise within the Ghana camp as compared to the other African camps. As I end this piece, I will leave with some very important questions. Why is there no support for indigenous coaches in Black Africa? Is there no way our local coaches can go on courses to better themselves to coach our national teams? When are we going to pay our local coaches well and give them proper contracts so that they can earn the respect of players? If Nigeria winger Peter Odemwingie, who initially spoke against Amodu Shaibu, now says it was a mistake to fire him after Nigeria’s disastrous campaign, then is it not time to focus on bringing out our very own coaches and giving them every support imaginable? In Ghana’s case, Milovan Rajevac will definitely leave Ghana after the World Cup for a bigger job, and with the sort of legacy that he will have left, does the Ghana Football Association go in for another foreign coach who will cost Ghana about $50,000 a month, if not more, or give a local coach the chance to do the job at less than half the cost with greater effect? I remember the 2009 World Youth Cup winning coach, Sellas Tetteh described by the President of the Ghana Football Association, Kwesi Nyantakyi, as not being ready for the Black Stars job. Now after being the first man to lead an African team to World success at Youth level, he has been snapped up by the Rwanda national team. Stephen Keshi qualified Togo for the World Cup four years ago but was fired after a poor African Nations Cup tournament in Egypt. Indeed most of Ghana’s successes as per winning trophies at senior level has been achieved with local coaches and it is sad that the legendary C.K Gyamfi, who coached Ghana to three out of her four African Nations Cup triumphs, has yet to be paid his pension because, according to sources close to this writer, the authorities do not have any evidence to show that he even worked as a coach for the Black Stars, and as a result, he is finding it extremely hard to get three square meals a day. If we do not begin to honour our own and instead spend millions on foreign coaches who only use us as stepping stones, then we will only enjoy short term success and endure long term agony. We need to start respecting our own, or else the same scenario will happen again and again.