It is 80 years since the national football team of Egypt made its maiden appearance at the FIFA World Cup in 1934 – the first such appearance for an African team.
But yesterday as the global soccer feast kicked off with the match between hosts Brazil and Croatia, the dynamics had changed with five African representatives in contention, namely Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria.
We should not forget that in 2010 South Africa hosted the 19th edition of the World Cup, which was described as the best ever to be hosted by any country. South Africa did Africans proud considering that prophets of doom predicted Africa could never host an event of such magnitude.
At the time some even said an European country was “on standby” lest the “crime” in South Africa became too much and derailed the event, while others questioned the science behind the “Jabulani ball” used for the tournament.
But undeterred, the South Africans put up a football bonanza like no other. FIFA gave South Africa 9 out of 10 for the entire competition.
Enter 2014 and the World Cup is being hosted by Brazil, like South Africa a member of BRICS, which is an association of five major emerging global economies. BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
However, the five teams representing Africa are a far cry from the Egyptian team of 1934 in this beautiful game that unifies Africans and others across ethnic, religious, political and social standing.
Even so, it should be pointed out that the number of teams representing Africa that has 54 recognised states should have been increased to at least ten. Because if one looks critically at the facts Europe has 13 teams in the pot, which counts against us. In the past Africa was only allowed two teams in the finals, which further diminished our chances to lift this coveted golden trophy.
The furthest an African team has progressed in the World Cup was the quarterfinals in 1990 when old warhorse Roger Milla and his fellow Cameroonians were the darlings of the global showpiece.
Senegal also reached the quarterfinals only to stumble against Turkey in extra time after seeing off France in their opening group match, and then holding Denmark and Uruguay to draws in their remarkable march to the last eight.
Ghana caused a mass heartache in 2010 in South Africa when they squandered a history-making berth in the semi-finals by missing a penalty kick in the dying minutes.
Africa has not lacked football skills as could be attested by Eusébio, Roger Milla, Jay-Jay Okocha, Hossam Hassan, Samuel Eto’o, Didier Drogba, George Weah, Kalusha Bwalya and many other greats too numerous to mention.
But Africa seems to be its worst enemy, with football administrators often not having football at heart and withholding what is due to players. This causes rows over pay, which in a way impacts players’ wizardry on the pitch.
Another counterproductive factor is that footballers do not get the recognition they deserve as heroes, as heroism appears to be the domain and monopoly of politicians.
Brazilian great Pele once predicted that an African team would lift the World Cup before the end of the 20th century but this did not happen. Though Africa is not a country, Africans are tied by blood, language and culture and we should all get behind our African teams at the World Cup.
History will reveal that France won the World Cup in 1998, but it’s a well-kept secret it was indeed Africa that won the cup for France with Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Lilian Thuram, Marcel Desailly, Patrick Viera, Dibril Cisse, Christian Karembeu and David Trezequet who are all descendants of the African continent.
That said, we hope an African team will lift the World Cup in Brazil and may the best team win. Boa sorte, Africa!