What’s wrong with African football?

Prospect Magazine

Prospect Blog

What’s wrong with African football?

by
/ / 1 Comment
Africa's best players are not usually to be found there

The continent's best players don't stay there

On Thursday night I arrived in Cape Town and headed straight for Green Point Stadium to see the Netherlands vs Cameroon. When the draw was made last December I had thought it might be the deciding game of the group, and that Cameroon would at least have a chance of qualifying for the round of 16. In fact it was a wake.

Cameroon were already out of the tournament, along with three other African teams – South Africa, Algeria and Nigeria—and though Ghana were through, Cote d’Ivoire’s chances rested on scoring nine goals against North Korea. As I write this, they too have been knocked out. Cameroon’s performance was lamentable. Of course, they had nothing to play for but pride, but that did not seem to be enough. In fact, both sides appeared to be going through the motions, and in Cameroon’s case

You need to be logged in to see this part of the content. Please Login to access.
  1. February 21, 2011

    katie

    african football is sick of his leaders ; they only think of becoming rich ; for instance the participation of senegal in the 2002 world cup in japan and corea ; few leaders have embellzed all the money senegal got from that zorld cup poor africa

Leave a comment





Author

David Goldblatt

David Goldblatt
David Goldblatt is a writer, broadcaster, and the author of “The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football” (Penguin) 




Most Read


Get a Free Trial Issue
Get a FREE Trial Issue