The on going qualifiers in the up coming African Cup of
Nations tournament, exclusively reserve for players plying their soccer talents
on the continent, has been revealing surprises and also exposing the real
qualities of individual local leagues. The finale is scheduled for
Ivory
Coast next year, between the months of
February and March. It will be an occasion to show the real colours of local
leagues and above all, expose new local talents, more often denied such
platform in favour of those playing professional football in
Europe.
But if the performances of clubs from various African countries in the two
continental soccer competitions: MTN CAF Champions League and CAF Cup,
are the benchmarks, on which prognostics could be made, then countries susceptible
to lift the first edition of the new tournament will be: Egypt, Tunisia,
Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Sudan, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast or South Africa.
This is so because, clubs from these countries have in recent times, either won
a trophy or two, in the two soccer competitions organised by the continental
soccer governing body CAF or taken part regularly at the highest echelon in
both competitions. African soccer is progressing, especially if the
performances of African players in European leagues are taken into
consideration.
Pivotal roles of African players
In
France
for example, African players have become so pivotal in the functioning of the
local league to a level that, when they leave in January every year, for the
Africa Cup of Nations, their departures, doesn’t only dry the charisma of the
league, it equally offset plans and ambitions of most clubs. African
players are also beginning to make similar impacts on other glamorous European
leagues such as those of
England,
Scotland,
Spain
and
Italy.
While African players excel in
Europe and
elsewhere, one will think their performances are directly propositional to
their individual national leagues. But the reality is at the image of
Africa.
There are some regions and countries with excellent leagues, while others have
semblance of what may be called a soccer league. Take
Ivory
Coast (The Elephants, name of their national
team) the second example, with her constellation of soccer stars. She is
currently perhaps the best soccer team on the continent. But in
Ghana,
they were humiliated by
Egypt,
an African team, made up of 98% of African players plying their trade in three
Egyptian clubs: Al Ahly, Ismaily and Zamalek. The successes of
Egypt
(Pharaohs, name of the Egyptian national team) against
Ivory
Coast and
Cameroon
made some to think that
Africa had good
leagues. As already stated, the reality is that, where there exist good soccer
leagues in Africa is in North Africa and in the
Republic
of
South Africa.
North African domination
The South African national football league can easily be
compared to those of high profile European leagues. But North African
clubs are ironically the ones dominating African club football. South
African clubs haven’t because, they seem to be more interested in their
domestic competitions than continental ones and also because of more financial
constrains she generates than returns. Besides the victories of Mameloudi
Sundown’s of South Africa in 1995, Assec Mimosa of Ivory Coast
in 1998, Accra Hearts of Oak, Ghana in 2000, and Eyinmba
Football Club of
Aba,
Nigeria
in 2003 and 2004, no other club from sub Saharan Africa has been able to
challenge North African domination or even won the CAF Cup. MTN CAF
Champions League, won by those sub-Saharan clubs latter mentioned, is the
famous of the two club competitions organised on the continent, which equally
has/generates high financial rewards.
Why North African clubs dominate African club football
Moreover, from the look of things, even at national team
levels, North African squads may soon overtake the ascendancy that three
sub-Saharan football powers (
Cameroon,
Ghana and
Nigeria)
seem to have had over them. But why is it that, North African clubs are
dominating African club football? The answer is simply. North African clubs are
dominating simply because, they have better organised leagues and those
managing clubs there do make long term investments. It is not as though
sub-Saharans can’t. They have excellent players, but the football
administrators in sub-Saharans countries are those killing their local leagues
and also the game. A proof that better management of clubs gives good
results is the case of Eyinmba Football Club of
Nigeria.
Sponsored by Dr Orji, Kalu, the former Governor of Abia state in eastern
Nigeria,
it was feared that, the back to back winner of the prestigious MTN CAF
Champions Leagues will dehydrated financially and die as soon as Dr Kalu leaves
office. But the club that seemed to be handled professionally with a manger by
name Felix Anyansi is still waxing on. Last year, she emerged as
Nigeria’s
champion. Eyinmba Football Club of Aba is perhaps the best managed club in
Nigeria[1].
And she is still in the ongoing 3rd preliminary rounds
of the 12th edition of the MTN CAF Champions League. She recently
registered a 5-1 victory over the high profile Tunisian team, Club
Africain de Tunis at the
Abatownship stadium.
Conversely to Eyinmba of Aba, Nigeria is Sable de
Batie aka San-san boys of
Batie,
Cameroon. In
2000, when she managed to make the last 8 clubs of MTN CAF Champions League,
the club managers sold almost the entire team, before the tournament could end.
What the owners of Sable failed to understand was that, clubs that have
registered successes in North Africa or in
Nigeria
and
Ivory Coast,
in particular Assec Mimosa, have done so because of their capacity to maintain
the same team on an average of 4 years. Ahly of Cairo, Egypt has had almost the
same players for ten years and it may explain why, they are the serial winners
of African club competitions. And in support of the notion that constancy pays,
in 2004 and 05, when Eyinmba of Aba won back to back the MTN CAF Champions
League, they did so, with the same boys. This simply means that, if the owners
of Sable de Batie, after her mediocre show in 2000, did not sell all her
players, she would have been able to construct a team solidly fit to challenge
the local clubs in
Cameroon’s
league and also the best teams of the continent.
Poor club management impedes growth of sub Saharan clubs
There was another team from southern Africa, precisely
Malawi,
known as Bakili bullets, sponsored by former president Bakili Muluzi,
but when he ran into problems it was also how such a promising club with
talented players melted away. While currently very few team owners in
sub-Saharan Africa have understood that football is a business like anyone,
where sole proprietorship might be an impediment to her growth, a majority in
North
Africa had long understood the tricks. Hence, they do invite
corporate bodies to help grow their clubs and that is why their domination will
continue to grow and it may also serve as a fulcrum of the division of African
soccer if those souths of the
Sahara, don’t
grow up financially. Already the MTN African Champions League is
being seriously challenged by the Arab Champions League. And it
appears the promoters of the second wants to remove the ethnic connotations she
has, in order to attract rich sub Saharan clubs such as Eyinmba of Nigeria,
Mameloudi Sundown’s of
South Africa,
Assec Mimosa of
Ivory Coast
and Accra Hearts of Oak of Ghana.
Nigeria is a country with
several good clubs, but the leaders of the Nigerian FA, spend time fighting
amongst themselves on how to make monies for themselves rather than the better
organisation of the local league. Fortunately, some Nigerian clubs are still
performing well, simply because, they have sponsors with deep pockets and also
that; there is real local club competition in that country’s league. While
Nigeria
has the money and the infrastructure albeit poorly maintained, it is not the
case with
Cameroon.
Cameroon: little or
nothing to show in term of football infrastructure
A country such as
Cameroon
that has taken part at the World Cup a record five times, her football
infrastructure would have made other African countries pale with envy. But
Cameroon
has little or nothing to show in term of football infrastructure. She has three
stadia, out of which, two were constructed in 1972, when she hosted her only
continental soccer tournament. And amongst the three, only that which is based
in Yaoundé and tagged: Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium is properly
maintained. That which is located in
Douala,
the commercial capital of the country is a disaster waiting to happen. The Douala
Reunification stadium is so run down that, local matches
are now played at the Mbappe Leppe stadium, a mini stadium
located at the Akwa neighbourhood of the city, which is neither CAF or FIFA
sanctioned.
Cameroon has a
fourth stadium in the city of
Bafoussam.
But she has been under construction for 30 years now. It is a world record and
whatever type of edifice they are preparing to produce in the form of a
stadium, will be discovered whenever they decree the construction as
terminated. Then there is also the scandal called Buea multipurpose stadium
situated in the University town of
Buea.
It is a stadium that on paper is the most modern in the country and which was
officially duly completed and inaugurated. But Buea has no modern stadium, for
her local team Mount Cameroon FC plays her CAF international
encounters 400km away in Yaoundé.
Paragons of corruption
But that part of the country has always known bogus realised
projects. The other scandalous case has nothing to do with football. But it
just to show the level of decay or corruption in that country and the scandal
in question was the Kumba-Mamfe road. It is about 120km long, but before the
reunification of British Southern Cameroon’s with the
French-speaking
Republic of
Cameroon;
it was a one lane macadamised road. But after reunification, late Ahmadou
Ahidjo, the former president of Federal Republic of Cameroon,
decided to dualise the road. And work on the dualisation was completed in 1964
and inaugurated officially. But the reality was that, the contractors were paid
to destroy the original macadamised road, in a bid to curtail relations between
Anglophone
Cameroon with
Eastern
Nigeria. Any way, that was and is still what some Anglophones
think, especially the nationalists. But the reality seems to be the past
time of government officials in that country: corruption. Funds for the
Kumba-Mamfe project developed eagle wings and were traced in French and Swiss
banks. It was the same stratagem employed to destroy the road linking the coast
of
Southern Cameroon’s
other wise known as the South West province with her interior, officially known
as the
North West
province. The world soccer governing body, FIFA allocates to countries that
have qualified for the World Cup, considerable sum of monies to prepare her for
the competition and also help develop local infrastructure.
The problem of Cameroonian soccer
With
Cameroon’s
five participations, she is expected have raked the whopping sum $ 1 billion.
But the amount have been wasted or diverted into private pockets. And in
Ghana,
during the pool phase, when the haughty and erstwhile touted Indomitable
Lions of Cameroon were trashed by the Pharaohs of Egypt.
Some Cameroonians could not believe their eyes. And as the saying goes: “the
lazy craft man always quarrels with his tools”, they stated searching for
alibis. Some pointed to poor organisation, while others pointed at ritualistic
sacrifice of a bull per match, practised by the Egyptians in
Ghana,
a practise they also did in Burkina-Faso in 1998 and won the trophy, as they
did in
Ghana.
But there wasn’t any ritualistic influence, for all African teams had their
magical practises practiced in
Ghana
in full bloom. The problem of Cameroonian soccer was laid bear by Joseph
Antoine Bell, former goalkeeper of the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, now
serving as consultant of the sport service of the audio section of the propaganda
service of the French government: Radio
France
International (RFI). Mr Bell, whose fluency and objectivity in
the criticism of his country’s football is brighter than his goal keeping
performances, when he was in active service, has not made him friends in the
land where football is used by the government for political purposes.
Mr Bell said Cameroon’s football was not only sick of her
trademark fire brigade method of preparation, she was also sick of the poor
organisation of her local league. He added that, in the last two decades, no
Cameroonian club have been able to make any significant showing at continental
level, not to mention win one of the two continental soccer competitions. He
was not lying. But for speaking the truth, he was named and shamed and labelled
unpatriotic. And when
Cameroon
did manage to snake herself into the Africa Cup of Nations finals in
Ghana,
and again, against
Egypt,
he (Joseph Antoine Bell) was referred to as a prophet of doom. But the truth is
that, gone are the days when Cameroon was the real lion king of African club
football with clubs such as Oryx Football Club of Bonaberi,
Douala, which won the first edition of CAF Champions league in 1964 against Hafia
Football Club of Conakry, Guinea. She could also boast of clubs likes o
Canon Sportive and Tonnerre Football clubs of Yaoundé and Union
Sportive of Douala.
Cameroon
has become a midget as far as African club football is concern. The country
still has the same clubs latter mentioned.
But other prestigious ones such as PWD Social Club of
Bamenda and Dynamo of Douala are now languishing in the
purgatory division two provincial leagues. But new ones have emerged such
as Cotton Sport Football Club of Garoua, Mount Cameroon
Football Club of Buea and Tiko United Football Club aka Samba
boys of Tiko. But the level of
Cameroon’s
local league has truly plummeted and that explains why, the little
Gabon
came into the den of the Lions in Yaoundé and gave her a lesson in football.
While Cameroonians might console themselves that, they were not the only ones
shocked by alleged soccer under dogs, but it was blistering as a defeat[2]. And it was
just a game of local players. It was an irrefutable indication that
Cameroon
may not only fail to qualify for Ivory Coast 2009, but also how far the
country’s league has touched
Congo
(metaphor for bottom). It is not the first time that the Panthers of Gabon
have moved all the way from Gabon to come to Cameroon to feed on
the Lions, but this one is particularly painful because, it shows that, those
manning the Cameroonian football league are not doing their job well
enough. They need to do some refurbishing on how the league is operated.
Notes:-
Egypt, has withdrawn from
the competition. According to Egyptian authorities, their withdrawal is to give
more opportunity for their national team to prepare and qualify for the World
Cup that will be organised by
South
Africa in 2010. The old biannual Africa Cup of
Nations remains valid and it will be staged by
Angola
in 2010.
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