gradually headed tothe conclusive stage as four countries; France,
Belgium, Croatia and Englandhave emerged semi-finalists in this year’s
edition of that epic competition.From the pulsating group stages down
through the quarter final stage of thecompetition, the world has witnessed
tremendous football display; quite ahandful of surprises and of course a
gradual tail spinning into an epic finalearly next week. Great teams from
legendary soccer playing nations likeGermany, Argentina, Spain, Brazil and
Portugal have been sent crashing out ofthis year’s fiesta and some
hitherto football minnows showed great flair inthis competition. Countries
like Mexico, South Korea, Japan and even Iranshowed tremendous football
promises that warns of their future threats tofootball powerhouses.
But theperformance of African teams in the competition leaves much to be
desired andposes very ominous questions about the future of African
football. Africa wasrepresented by five teams in the competition; Nigeria,
Egypt, Senegal, Moroccoand Tunisia and unfortunately, none of these five
teams made it beyond thegroup stage of the competition! Very damning, you
might say, but this isunderstating the fact that African teams were dismal
in the ongoing World Cup.That none of them could lift itself above the
group stage is a worryingindictment of African football and this punctures
the demand for more Africanslots in the World Cup, as the world football
governing body prepares toenlarge the size of the competition.
In thisWorld Cup, Senegal turned out to be the most successful African
team as itshowed initial promises to secure a win and a draw in its first
two matchesbefore a last minute loss of nerves made it to toss away
perhaps Africa’sbrightest hopes of securing a second round berth in the
competition. Nigeriawaffled through its legendary preparatory hitches to
show a resurgence after itwon its second match, after losing the first but
recovered its bounce in thethird match only to lose it few minutes to a
second round qualification.Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco were huge flops that
never raised their games to theexpected levels as they earned early exits
from their respective groups. Sofrom the five African contestants in the
mundial, none was able to walk out fromtheir groups, which is perhaps the
worst ever performance by Africa in theWorld Cup.
Much hopeswere placed on the five African teams to excel from the African
world record ofquarter final appearance which, thus far, is held by three
countries; Cameroun,Senegal and Ghana. Many soccer pundits predicted that
an African team wouldmake the semifinal of this year’s competition given
the spurts of promisesAfrican players have been showing in all parts of
the world. Many betted thatat least one of the five African teams would
best the standing African record andpossibly make it to the semifinal
stage and many were ready to wager on thisbefore the competition kicked
off. Sure, African soccer stars were shinning anddoing well in
international team football which ignited the optimism thatAfrica will
show very strong presence in the present World Cup.
But thesehigh hopes were dashed by the mediocre showing African teams
displayed in thecompetition proper. To say the least, African teams were
flat-footed in theWorld Cup! Let’s face the fact, there were spurts of
brilliance in some outingsof African teams but these were eclipsed by the
lack of team mission and visionwhich afflicted the five African nations in
this year’s competition. There was ageneral purposelessness that showed in
the matches of these African teams. Itwas obvious, watching African teams
in this competition, that there was ageneral lack of clue as to how best
to deliver as individual teams and take thegame higher than the notches
their rivals were operating on. The competitionexposed one general
affliction that is the bane of African football and this isthe discernable
idea on how to rise to whatever occasion they find themselvesand deliver
the critical results against their opponents. The non-availabilityof a
sense of direction is why African teams scratched results from
incrediblesources that defy even their understanding. Most times, African
teams justbadger their ways into victory and this obliterates a reality in
football thatvictory is a result of deliberate, practiced and well-honed
efforts and notjust occasional happenstance, as African teams are wont to
believe.
There is nodoubt that football is an art, which must be learned, imbibed
and improvedupon. This is not to say that victory in football is
guaranteed under this outlinebut that teams work their ways to victory;
not through forcing their waysthrough but being able to read each match
and decide what best way to adopt toget victory. This is what separates
the most successful football nations likeBrazil, Italy, Germany from the
other teams and it is not surprising that thesethree nations have won 13
out of the 20 World Cup competitions ever staged.This report is not
postulating that because African teams didn’t win the WorldCup, they
should be written off. What it rather seeks to advance is thatAfrican
football must develop to the stage where African teams can work
outvictories which are not through occasional spurts of brilliance or
through thephysical exertion of raw strength but through renewable
football arts thatwould be trusted to produce results as is the case in
Europe and South America.
The dismalouting by African countries in the present World Cup
necessitates the need forAfrican soccer managers to go back to the drawing
board to review Africanfootball and make critical adjustments to bring it
at par with other nationsand also give African football the necessary
competitive edge to excel. Suchreview demands a comprehensive attention to
football competitions in Africa at bothclub and national levels. Managers
of soccer in Africa need to embark on animportant retreat to look for ways
to raise our football and prevent such hugeembarrassments as we had in the
present World Cup. Given the rising importanceof football in world
affairs, there is urgent need for football in Africa tobecome really
professional and in doing this, there should be deliberateefforts to tap
into the advances made in Europe and America to give ourfootball the
cutting edge to live up to global expectations. African soccermanagers
therefore, have an onerous task to declare a soccer emergency whichwould
revolve around how to harness the huge potential abounding all overAfrica
to build formidable club and national teams that would stand the test
oftime among European and South American teams.
The nextWorld Cup is four years from now and this is enough time for
African soccermanagers to sit down and draw the templates of soccer
management that wouldimprove on the present poor level of African football
and bring all necessaryfeatures to make it to pursue parity with football
in advanced football nationsin Europe and South America. Whatever needs to
be done must be done to preventa repeat of such abysmal outing as Africa
had in the present World Cup and alsohelp Africans secure the confidence
of the soccer world to give the continentmore slots in the expansion plan
of the World Cup. The time to act is now!
Peter ClaverOparah.
Ikeja,Lagos.
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com