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.       

Mourinho the master tactician

It almost looked like an impossible task when Chelsea lost the Champions league first leg match in Paris against Paris St Germain (PSG). The team had gone down 3-1 and this was not an easy score line to overturn. I was also harbouring some doubts at the same time believing in Jose Mourinho to provide a silver lining for the Chelsea funs and that came in the form of a victory against Europe’s emerging powers - PSG.

PSG who are backed by Qatari investors have invested heavily in players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic who was missing due to injury, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Edinson Cavani, Thiago Silva, Thiago Motta, Lucas Moura, Javier Pastore and others. On script this is a great team capable of causing problems to any team on earth. But Chelsea coach kept his belief in the likes of young Oscar, Eden Hazard, Willian and the experience of John Terry, Frank Lampard, Petre Chech and Branislav Ivanovic who did not disappoint on an important night at Stamford Bridge. They went on to beat their visitors 2-0 for the game to end 3-3 on aggregate. The Blues qualified on an away goal rule.

The winning goal came through Demba Ba, the man who has not been used regularly this season. His 87^th minute scrambled goal made a difference after Chelsea had taken an early lead through Andre Schurrle in the first half. The Senegalese big man who bundled in the ball from a Caesar Azpilicueta cross said afterwards, “I saw the ball and it was in the goal. I just do what I have to do when I get chances this season but tonight I took.” The Portuguese’s run along the touchline evoked memories of his famous Old Trafford celebration when his Porto side defeated Manchester United in 2004 although this time he was also keen to whisper in his players’ ears not to take risk.

   

It was not so much about the players’ profiles but the managers on the touchline. In Mourinho Chelsea has a coach who has won two champions league trophies with Porto in 2004 and Inter Milan in 2010. He has also never lost a quarter final match in this competition. It is this experience that the Portuguese was bringing to this clash against his opposite Laurent Blank. The former Manchester United player has experience of playing in the English league but no experience of coaching a team at that level. Mourinho had told his players to “go out and play with smiles on their faces” as they had nothing to lose after last week’s defeat and indeed his players did just that. 

It is the seventh time in 11 champions league campaigns that Chelsea have reached the semi finals and Mourinho is on course to become the first manager to win the European cup with three different clubs. The Chelsea coach repaid the belief that the Stamford Bridge followers have in him when they kept singing his return even when the team was winning the Europa league last year. Someone even wrote “it is in moments like these that Chelsea brought back Mourinho” refering to the Portuguese’s ability to prepare his players to overturn the 3-1 loss suffered in Paris.

Everyone can be a coach but what separates good from bad coaches is the character. Mourinho’s personality is one of wining, winning and winning. It is this mentality that has seen him not lose at Stamford Bridge and in 9 UEFA Champions League quarter finals. He is such a great tactician who is never afraid to make important but sometimes risky decisions. One example was in last night’s game where by the end of 90 minutes he had three strikers on the field and it paid off.

Congratulations Chelsea!!!     

Lamentations from a journalist

Sometimes securing an audience with a government official can prove more difficult than getting an assurance from God that you will live another day. One excuse is how busy they are; they will often claim they can only meet you “next week.” This is unhelpful when the story is urgent.

When they’re in opposition, they are buddies, pals, and friends – whatever term you may call them. But give them a chance to run your affairs and try to give them a call, they simply will never pick up your calls. When you’re lucky, which is not normally the case, they will give you all sorts of excuses – bring a letter on a headed paper or the Permanent Secretary is busy, so many excuses. Of course a few will respond or make an effort to call back when they find a missed call, the majority would not bother. They will only call you when they have a statement to issue and no questions asked. What they forget is that in trying to answer what they think are questions from the people their answers end up creating more questions. 

I am talking about our politicians and civil servants. The people we have trusted to run the affairs of the country on our behalf. It is important to note that those are not your personal to holder positions, they’re not your farms or your homes – they’re public offices and anyone should walk in at any time to check what you’re doing on our behalf. Of course not anyone because there will be uncontrolled traffic to those offices. The people of Zambia and anywhere in the world have their mates in the name of journalists to perform this function on their behalf. The journalists would in turn pass on this information to the public in order for them to know what is happening. 

Contrary to the above assertion, our politicians who are supposed to be our servants have turned masters and are dictating what should be asked or told to the people. They have invented excuses whenever you visit them. It is either you meet a tired secretary who shows no concern or at least care enough to schedule appointments with her boss or you will be told to put it in written and drop a hard copy. The questions that I have no answers to are:- Where do you keep the piles and piles of paper that you receive everyday in your offices? When are you going to at least embrace new technology and begin to demand for soft scanned and signed letters? Why is our public service so stack in the past? What I have learnt through my experiences is that you do not even respond to those letters. 

There is a bit of light coming from above though. I was encouraged when in one of my interactions with the Secretary to the Cabinet, Dr. Roland Msiska to note that he is forward thinking man who wants this government to be transformed into an e-powered one. In his words he said: “A smart government is a government which can clearly use ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and the people in such an efficient manner that most of the documents should be on the internet. For example, you should by the time you’re coming if we had our portal running which is now being tested – our government portal. You should have gotten a lot of documents and things we are talking about already so that by the time you are coming you should have just been asking me to explain things that you were not clear about in the documents. We are heading there as well. We are talking about an e-government system that will look at government to government communication, government to business communications."

Clearly this is what this country needs because that is a quick and easy direction every serious nation is taking. But is it possible under the current system of governance and type of leaders occupying those offices? This is a conundrum Dr. Msiska and his colleagues at cabinet office have to deal with. Facebook pages, twitter accounts, are they not good platforms to communicate and connect with the masses, you may ask. Yes, they’re but they don’t give an opportunity to ask questions and get right answers. They are after all not owned and managed by leaders except for a few exceptions. They are managed by young and energetic henchmen surrounding these leaders. I doubt if the leaders even know what is posted on these so called their facebook pages because they don’t own them.

Zambia is in urgent need of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, which would in a way, hopefully, open up this government and other private institutions to proper media scrutiny.  It will be a bit difficult even with the FOI in place but it is a move in the right direction. Many serious democracies have done so and results of having one can also enhance the fight against corruption.       

Provide leadership

Many questions continue to be raised about the PF government’s handling of various national issues – from the constitution, the NGO Act, commodity price increases to the depreciating kwacha. Certain people are beginning to think power has gotten in the ears of these leaders that they’re no longer focusing on their work. Perhaps, the revotionary former president of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara was right when he once said that power was like a bottle of whisky; you have a sip, enjoy the taste, take another and before you know it the bottle is finished and you’re drunk.

It looks – to many in the opposition and civil society at least, that the PF have been enjoying the taste (of whisky). What is the fussy they’re creating around the constitution and NGO Act? They have been shifting goal posts, contrary to what they had promised in their manifesto. In fact, they have been given more time because their promise was to do all the important things within 90 days, which in simple terms is 3 months. It seems the PF where not quite ready for this task.  What they forgot is that this country has so much that needs to be done – everywhere you look, there is work that needs to be done. Our children need better schools that teach the right curriculum and right subjects, our hospitals need medical personnel and medicine, the jobless youth need something to do, widows and orphans require government’s support and the list goes on.  

The unnecessary tension that they are creating as a result of the jaded approach to the constitution-making process is making citizens sick and tired of their leaders. What has followed is this unending bickering among leaders. Huge sums of money have been wasted on the constitution making process which has been a project that started some years back. Who will show leadership on this one single national project? Many people thought the PF would do the right thing, alas, they were wrong. It seems we are back to our usual ways of bickering, backbiting and slandering one another – things that are so common in a country which prides itself to be a Christian. Wait a minute! What is Christian about this country where people who still and amass wealth dubiously are praised, go scot-free and are praised by those in the corridors of power? 

Let those who have the power use it well to deal with the challenges facing the nation than create unnecessary debates. The mandate given to you by the people of this country doesn’t warrant you to take a callous approach to issues affecting this country. You must be sober and explain your actions to the people who voted you into office. Remember, yours is to govern for five years and once that is over you will be exposed to the ballot box to seek another mandate. It will be sad if you allow your departure to be received with jeers as opposed to cheers that greeted your coming into office.