Why do African teams fail to tick at the World Cup?

George Wear

During a conversation with a colleague from Malawi - not about football but because of the ongoing World Cup, he asked me how I rate African teams at this year’s tournament in Brazil.  Without much hesitation, I expressed my frustration. Then I moved the conversation to another level asking him what he thinks make African teams fail to compete against their peers at the global showpiece. He responded by saying I think Africans are happy with being used.

To a certain extent, I agree with his assumption because when you look at many of the players in the five African representatives, they are world class players who play at various top teams in Europe and elsewhere. When they meet for national duty, they are an amalgamation of British, Italian, Spanish brand in one. But still they can’t tick. Let us take Nigeria as an example – from the goal keeper Vincent Enyama to the top man up front, Emmanuel Emenike, they come from top teams in France, Britain, Spain, Turkey, you mention them. In the game against Iran, they were more of underdogs than African champions. These are great players who it seems are happy being used at various clubs and not putting the effort when  playing for what is theirs.

Cameroon is another example – having Samuel Eto in their ranks is enough motivation to participate with confidence. Eto'o scored over 100 goals in five seasons with Barcelona, and is also the record holder in number of appearances by an African player in La Liga. In 2010, he became the first player to win two European continental trebles following his back-to-back achievements with Barcelona and Inter Milan. He is the second player to have ever scored in two separate UEFA Champions League finals and the fourth player, after Marcel Desailly, Paulo Sousa, and Gerard Piqué, to have won the UEFA Champions League two years in a row with different teams.  

He is the most decorated African player of all time having won the African Player of the Year award a record four times - in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2010. He was also third in the FIFA World Player of the Year award in 2005. But look at what happened when he and his colleagues met Franco Di Santo's Mexico? They were beaten 1-0. In the next match, they come up against Uruguay before ending their World Cup first round fixture against hosts, Brazil. Can they go past these two teams to secure qualifications into the second round? That is a million dollar question.

I think like my friend suggested, the whole issue comes down to lack of patriotism and loving it “when you’re being used” as he put it. Africa is never shot of talent as we have seen from the time of Abedi "Pele" Ayew at Marseille, Samuel Kuffour at Bayern Munich, Finidi George and Nwankwo Kanu at Ajax when they won the Champions League in 1995 to the time of Didier Drogba at Chelsea, Africa has been on the rise.  What about the likes of George Wear? The man who in 1995 was voted World Footballer of the year, won the FIFA Ballon D'Or and was three times African Footballer of the year. Not only that, in 2004 he was named in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players. He played for Monaco, PSG, AC Milan in Italy, Chelsea and Man City in England – massive talent that Africa has produced. The two never even participated at the World Cup because their countries could not qualify then.

Abedi Pele, another great son of the African soil, one of the pioneers of African football in Europe who was voted African footballer of the year three times in a roll and also won the Champions League with Olympique Marsseille in France. There are also others who are still playing and are even participating in this year's World Cup. Drogba, the man who tormented defenses during his days at Chelsea and assisted the English team lift the Champions League in 2012 and

While the blame partly goes to the players for their lack of patriotism, I think there is more to it than just that. What about football administration in several African teams? It is pathetic to say the least. We see people jostling for positions in football associations, not to win so that they can improve football standards but to eat. There is where the main problem is. What they fail to appreciate is that football administration is more than just holding meetings and preparing league fixtures. There is people management involved, development of talent, coming up with a strategic plans of how to identify talent and nurture it.

How do you explain, a team winning the Africa Cup, then the following year fails to win a single match at the another competition of the magnitude?  Zambia failed not even to qualify for the World Cup but to beat teams like Lesotho at home. It is at football administration level where there are more problems. Many of these great players when they come to their home countries would for example be promised winning bonuses. They win a match but it becomes difficult to be paid. No one will even be bold enough to tell them when they will be paid.  Contrast that with the treatment they get at their clubs abroad. They are kings who don’t worry about small things like allowances. Money just flows automatically into their bank accounts.  

If African football administrators where as astute as their colleagues in Europe in developing local leagues, we were even going to have many of these top players playing on the continent. Look at the Egyptian League, which at least is run professionally, many top players who helped Egypt win 7 cup of nations are playing in that country. The likes Aboutrika, Wael Gamal, Armed Fatty to mention but a few, they were and some are still playing in Egypt. What do you think is keeping them there? It is because their league is well managed and can pay well.

I think African football administrators can learn from countries like Belgium, who had put in place a strategy of developing talent that would leter take them back to the World Cup. This includes even identifying players of Belgium heritage wherever they are playing, including those from African countries where they don't appreciate them. Today, they are the dark horses at this year's global showpiece. With players like Lomelu Lukaku, from Congo DR, Mussa Dembele, Adnan Januzj, Vincent Kompany - they're a team to watch. 

Coming to this year’s World Cup, apart from Cote D’Ivoire, I doubt if there is any other African team that can go past the first round. Enjoy the games as we hope for an improvement from African representatives.