Why African Football Teams Flop At The 2018 World Cup
The African football icon has revealed why the continent’s representatives always fail to sparkle at the global football showpiece.
Africa boasts of massive triumphs when it comes to age grade football but have failed to impress during the biggest football spectacle.
Nigeria remains the most successful country when it comes to the U17 Fifa World Cup, while African teams have made it to the final of the Fifa U20 World Cup on five occasions – with Ghana emerging as World Champions in 2009.
Despite these impressive feats at age-grade competitions, making an appreciable impact at the senior World Cup has been a near-impossible task.
Since the competition’s inception in 1930, no African team has made it past the quarter-final (Cameroon 1990, Senegal 2002 & Ghana 2010). And in the ongoing tourney holding in Russia, none of Africa’s flagbearers made it past the preliminary round.
Senegal’s 2-1 victory over Poland had fueled optimism of a fruitful impact nut before the applause died down, the Teranga Lions, Nigeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco have been kicked out the competition.
As Africa continues to lick their wounds following another failed expedition, Emmanuel Amuneke has disclosed why the continent has continued to underachieve.
According to the former African Player of the Year who is a member of Fifa’s Technical Study Group, Africa’s biggest undoing is their failure to invest in grassroots programmes.
“This has been a great World Cup so far and just goes to show that some nations have invested in grassroots programmes to grow their football and unearth talents that are now playing on the biggest stage,” he wrote on Instagram.
“England have St. George’s Park, France have Clairefontaine, Belgium have a centre of Excellence in Tubize and Croatia have multiple Football centres.
“What these facilities provide you with is a hub of football development from grooming players, to coach education, to football science and ultimately to developing the very best the country has to offer.
“This is something lacking in Africa which is why we fail to advance further than we do. If you create the right environment, then success is only a matter of time.”
While Croatia, Belgium, England and France continue their battle for the top prize, African teams would hope to sit up towards a better outing in Qatar 2022.