By Phinda Zwane
AFTER watching Ghana
generously giving away the game to Italy
on Monday evening, I had one conclusion in my mind; Africans, all of them,
should pull out of the World Cup and save us from the embarrassment that we are
in, or we have been exposed to.
I had thought that the woodpeckers that peck our screens
during the games would say something about Africa about
not being ready to compete at this level. No they didn’t. Instead, they went on
to bore us trying to outsmart each other about their knowledge of football, if
not lack of it.
For football followers around the continent, Ghana
was the only hope surviving after Ivory Coast
did the same against Argentina.
How can a locomotive move without a head? Start striker Emmanuel Adebayor is a coach’s nightmare because of his discipline
cancer that is surely going to affect the rest of the squad. Having followed
African politics very closely, if President Gnnasingbe
Eyadema was still alive, I would have no doubt that
the Togolese squad would find a nicely prepared reception for them at Lome International Airport when going back home. The
reception would come in the form of a well serviced army truck that would ferry
them to the most remote army barracks where they would be taught the finer
touches of the fox-trot!
Still on Togo,
if I had things my way, the squad would have to be recalled and board the
earliest flight to Lome
and save the country from more shame. At the time of
writing this article, Togo were still going to play against the Koreans who are
better known for martial arts and sea food.
Coming back to the game between Ghana
and Italy,
Michael Essien should have been substituted after the
first half. He was playing like a jealous woman from a polygamous marriage. The
guy was so selfish and did not want to pass the ball to his teammates once he
was in the box. He tried to score from awkward angles and wasted golden
opportunities. Very greedy indeed. The Ghanaian keeper
was very good given the erratic defence controlled by
Samuel Kuffour who gave the Italians an early
Christmas present in the second half. Chris Amoah
tried to have a slot in the sun, however, the entire
Ghanaian squad was wallowing in confusion. Stage fright cannot be blamed as the
cause because most Ghanaian players are exposed to atmosphere as overwhelming
like the World Cup. They have been exposed enough to be able to cope with games
of this magnitude. No excuses!
Pity the African fans who have paid their money to watch
their teams dithering in the ‘Fuhrer’ territory. When Ghana
and Ivory Coast
shamed us, I even wished that the German skin heads would descend on them
reminding and serve a nice reminder of the dark days of the holocaust. There
was so much hope that the two teams would do well. The World Cup is such a
sophisticated tournament so much failure to grasp the wind at
the beginning, you only remain clutching the tail feathers of the pigeon
and nothing else. A good performance earlier would have boosted the morale in
the rest of the African teams playing there. Minnows like Togo,
I am afraid, have resigned themselves to mere tourists and nothing to do with
the World Cup. Politically, Togo
is not very stable, so an all expenses paid for trip from Togo
to Germany is
most welcome. What with German food and beer flowing endlessly compared to yams
and palm wine from West Africa!!
From what has unfolded, the situation with African football
is that it has caught bird flu! which will take time
to be cured, if that would be immediately possible. There is still a very long
way for African football. With South Africa, the best financially able country in the continent also wallowing
in confusion, what can be said about the rest of us. Nothing.
We are going nowhere. Beginning with the players, their attitude has changed so
much. They are primarily concerned with making money for themselves than
national pride. That is why it is so easy today for players to move around the
world collecting citizenships offered by those countries whose players lack the
talent of black players with African roots. Libya’s
President Colonel Muammar Gaddafi could not have said it any better. The
Brother Leader has lashed out at FIFA for resurrecting the slave trade.
Reuters have quoted the fire-brand African leader saying; “Fifa reactivates the system of slavery and enslavement and
trading in human beings from Africa to Europe
and America and
also from Latin America to Europe.”
He was right. There are black players who are offered citizeships by richer countries so that they can play for
their national teams and in the process, Africa
is robbed of the cream of players that should be playing for their countries.
The slave trade, round three!!
It is important that CAF, at large, should convene a huge
soccer indaba where all African football stakeholders will put their heads together, identify common problems with common solutions for
African football problems. One needs no prize for guessing that none of the
African sides campaigning in Germany
will reach the KO stages of the World Cup. The signs from the horizon are bad
for one to start thinking that African teams will bring anything home. Gone are
the days of dedicated players like Roger Milla who
were propelled by national pride and personal vigour
to perform better during the World Cup.
If players like Ghana’s
Essien still play like they are playing for a
Christmas party then we should forget. African players have lost the dynamic
touch that we have been used to. Today, they play for ice cream and ginger
cakes. National pride is lost! Money has taken the centre stage. Politicians
have not made it any better. Some African governments, just like here in Swaziland,
lack the political commitment to support soccer or sports in general. At the
end of it all, it shows and we are exposed. We cannot even begin thinking about
the local case where those in authority are playing a cat and mouse game. An
embarrassing hide and seek game that is best
understood by those in the know. As things are, the Swazi public is on the tenter hooks, questions are asked from all directions and
no one is prepared to give answers. That is the van Winckel
Saga. Come 2008 for the Olympic games. We are NOT
going to qualify if we do things as we do at present. With the rest of Africa
having caught ‘football flu’ chances are, football
disaster is imminent. We are going back to the dark ages. Poor Africa!!
Posted: 6/14/06
Source: observer.org.sz
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