Senegal 0 – 1 Colombia.
And with this scoreline at the 2018 World Cup, the African challenge at the football’s biggest stage comes to a premature end. It is the first time in 36 years that no African side has managed to qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup. Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia suffered early elimination by losing their first two group matches. Nigeria and Senegal both had their chances to make it through to the next round but were not lucky enough on the final match-day of the group stages.
Nigeria just needed a draw against Argentina to qualify but were denied by a great volley from Marcos Rojo in the dying minutes of the match which made the score 2-1 in favour of Argentina and saved Argentina from a humiliating exit from the World Cup. Nigeria, despite losing their first match to Croatia, bounced back to defeat Iceland 2-0 but fell short against the Argentines. Senegal won their first group match 2-1 against Poland , drew 2-2 with Japan and suffered a 1-0 defeat on the hands of Colombia, which left the African side level on points with Japan and the tie was broken by “fair play” rule, which was invoked for the first time in World Cup history. Morocco also played some great football at the World Cup. The inspired Moroccan team was led by Mehdi Benatia the 31 year old Juventus defender. They lost their first two matches against Iran and Portugal by fine margins but salvaged a 2-2 draw against a determined Spanish side. Egypt and Tunisia were not able to make any impact on the football fans around the world but toiled very hard in the qualifying stages to make it through to the finals. The Egyptian side which appeared at the finals for the first time after 1990 lost all of their group matches whereas Tunisia just managed a win versus the debutants Panama which was not enough for them.
It is not for the first time that we have seen African sides not making it to the business end of the tournament, but the story is more or less the same every time. The farthest they have been in this competition is the quarter-finals, that also just on 3 occasions, Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and the most recent appearance by Ghana at the 2010 World Cup. Apart from them only Morocco, Nigeria and Algeria have made it past the first round to the round of 16. Nigeria having a upper hands on the others have done it for 3 times in 1994,1998 and in 2014. Morocco and Algeria have done it for one time each, in 1986 and in 2014 respectively.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) was established in 1957 by FIFA as a result of growing interest for the World Cup among the African Nations. CAF is the administrative and controlling body for African Football, currently there are 56 nations as it’s member. Since the expansion of number of teams at the World Cup finals to 32 in 1998 CAF has been allocated 5 places although it was expanded to 6 for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa to include the hosts. Only 13 African nations have made it to the World Cup finals which are Cameroon, Nigeria , Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Egypt , Ghana, South Africa, Senegal, Zaire, Angola and Togo. Cameroon being the most successful among them and have done it for 7 times. The following image gives us a better picture about the other countries as well.
Performances at individual World Cups
The first ever African side to feature at a FIFA World Cup is Egypt, way back in 1934. They were drawn against Hungary in the first round and lost 4-2 to them. It was a straight knock-out round so they got eliminated. After that Egypt has reached the finals on 2 more occasions in 1990 and in 2018, but they never managed to win a single match at the finals. The years 1938-1966 saw no African action at the World Cup despite a rapid increase in the number of countries appearing in the qualification process. 15 African nations withdrew from the qualification process for 1966 World Cup to protest against the FIFA’s policy of allocating only one place to three continents (Africa, Asia and Oceania).
In the 1970 World Cup Morocco made Africa’s return to the finals, but were eliminated after the group matches managing just a point from a 1-1 draw against Bulgaria , the first African point. In 1974, Zaire made their only appearance at the World Cup but suffered a thumping against the likes of Scotland, Yugoslavia and Brazil and conceded 14 goals in 3 matches and scored none. In 1978 Tunisia occupied the only African berth at World Cup and restored African pride by winning 3-1 against Mexico to become the first African team ever to win a World Cup match. They also held the reigning champions West Germany to a goalless draw but still didn’t managed to progress to next round.
The 1982 World Cup saw a controversial exit of one of the African side Algeria, the other being Cameroon who were eliminated after the group stages. Algeria won their first 2 group games but were eliminated by a controversial result of West Germany vs Austria match. A 1-0 or 2-0 win for West Germany would see both European teams qualifying at the expense of Algeria. West Germany took the lead after 10 minutes and after that both the teams just passed the ball aimlessly for the next 80 minutes, this incident is famously known as “Disgrace of Gijon”. Morocco became the first African side to reach the Round of 16 at the 1986 World Cup where they got eliminated by eventual runner-ups West Germany.
Cameroon were the surprise package of the 1990 World Cup. They went all the way through to the quarter final defeating Colombia 2-1 in the round of 16. In the quarter final Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions led England by 2 goals to 1 with 7 minutes to play but were denied a place in semis by a late penalty awarded to England, who also scored in extra time to finish the business. Nigeria reached the Round of 16 stage for 1994 and 1998 but got eliminated on both occasions.
Senegal qualified for their first ever World Cup in 2002, and caught everyone’s eyes when they defeated the defending champions France 1-0 in their World Cup opener. They went past Sweden in the next round but were eventually halted by Turkey in the quarter finals.Senegal became the second African nation to reach the quarter final stage of the World Cup. The 2006 World Cup had 4 new African nation representation Angola, Ghana , Ivory Coast and Togo. Only Ghana progressed to the next round but were kicked out by Brazil by a 3-0 defeat.
For the first time in 2010,FIFA World Cup was held on African soil . A record of 6 teams qualified for the finals including the hosts South Africa. The hosts were unable to impress their fans but Ghana made up for them by reaching the quarter finals by defeating U.S. 2-1 in the round of 16. They faced Uruguay in the quarters and got eliminated on penalties after a controversial handball by the Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez on the goal line deep into extra time. In the 2014 World Cup two African nations namely Algeria and Nigeria progressed through to the round of 16 for the first time. However both teams just fell short to beat the likes of Germany(Algeria) and France(Nigeria).
Will They Ever Be Able To Win IT
“When I first started to coach Ivory Coast I said to Didier Drogba: ‘We have some fantastic players and we can go far in the World Cup.’ He said : ‘No,we can’t’.”
Sven-Goran Eriksson the former Ivory Coast manager who managed the side in 2010 World Cup made the above statement in an interview and by the end of the 2010 tournament, the Swede later understood that Drogba was not being negative – just realistic.
“The reason why they don’t do it? One word: Organisation. It was a total chaos when I joined,” Eriksson added later.
Another problem that they face is the lack of home grown players and managers. The Moroccan side arrived at the 2018 World Cup with 17 out of their 23 players born in a foreign country. Out of 44 occasions African teams have competed at the World Cup, 30 has been managed by non-African. The European managers offer much more than just matchday. They can prepare better tactically rather than just relying on talent. African nations often have a local coach during qualification and if they are successful they then take in a big name from Europe or South America one or two months before tournament. It gives them a very little time to prepare them mentally and tactically according to their new manager.
But still there is light at the end of the tunnel, recent changes have been made to refereeing structures and coaching standards in an attempt to bolster the chances of African sides. Works need to be done at the grassroots level in Africa. The thinking of the players need to be changed which is of being a underdog. They certainly do not lack talented players, but all they need to do is manage all the off-field issues which affect the players on the field during big tournaments.
Who knows one day they might win the World Cup!
Beyond Minute 90 