From time immemorial I've known African teams to always struggle at the FIFA World Cup and the saddening part is that most African teams don't usually make it past the group stage in almost every World Cup tournament
Many of us watched 2018 FIFA World Cup and we saw how all African teams were bundled out of the tournament. Out of the five African teams that qualified for the tournament only Nigeria and Senegal had a close chance of making it out of the group stage but they lost that chance and were sent packing
If you check World cup history you will discover that no African team has ever made it to the World Cup final let alone winning it, and this has been a feat that seem unattainable to African teams since they started participating at the World Cup
At 1990 FIFA World Cup, Cameroon left everyone perplexed when they shocked Argentina and become the first African team to qualify to the quarter final. This was a feat that took more than a decade for another African team to achieve.
At 2002 FIFA World Cup, Senegal were also a hot African team who made an impact at the World Cup. They thrashed the defending champions France and proceeded to the quarter finals before Turkey sent them packing by a 1-0 win
At 2010 FIFA world cup, Ghana was another African team that had an impressive performance. They were almost at the verge of proceeding to the semi finals only to be deprived of their dreams by a missed penalty at the dying minute by Uruguay
I can go on and on to give instances of how it has become a jinx that seems impossible for African teams to break
What could really be the reason behind African teams underperformance, and why they don't usually make it past group stage at the FIFA World Cup tournament? Here are the reasons
- Africans are blinded by religion
Africans so much believe in the efficacy of juju over hard work or training. If things do not go the way we planned it, it must be some evil spirits responsible for our woes. Some African players believe in the power of juju and that's why some of them don't perform well. We are unnecessarily being too religious when hard work is needed most and that's why always end up with mediocrity performance in tournaments. We believe prayer gives good result than juju
2. Poor funding of African football
Africa football is not properly funded unlike in many developed climes and that's why it's always like football is not for us. The amount of fund allocated by government for funding of football is usually very low and that's why many young players football talents always die due to lack of sponsor. African teams under performance at the World Cup can also be traced down to poor funding of African football
3. Players are not selected by merit
Players are sometimes not selected by merit but by affiliation to well connected politicians or reputable personality in the country. Some bad players always make it to the natural team and you begin to wonder how they managed to get there. Football is sometimes politicize in this clime and that's great young talents sometimes don't succeed in their football career
I drop my pen at this juncture
Thank you for reading and have a nice day 😎
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