Football in the continent of Africa is definitely the most treasured game amongst the people , involving individuals of all ages, social, educational, cultural and religious backgrounds. From street corners, schools, markets, offices, to worship centres, the subject of football is discussed by individuals from all walks of life and often times, it is an issue of heated debate. Everyone is aware that football has come of age in the region with a large number of its highly skillful and talented players plying their trade overseas and the time has come for the continent to stamp its presence permanently on the world scene. So when the Confederation of African Football CAF, at the 25th congress, before the start of the last African Nations Cup in Mali took the decision to abolish the World Cup qualifiers in favour of a new format, whereby the four semi-finalists and the best losing quarter-finalist from the African Nations Cup will qualify for the next World Cup, it provoked strong reactions among football enthusiasts who felt that the move by CAF will be detrimental to the progress of football in Africa and will lead to a depreciation of quality soccer being enjoyed by the continent.
Although the decision taken by CAF stands out with certain advantages such as: increased competitiveness of the Nations Cup, conservation of funds by countries, reduction of dispute between foreign clubs and countries in terms of players' release, reduction of stress on players as the number of international matches are pruned and alignment of the Africa soccer calendar with the rest of the world. However all the above mentioned become insignificant when compared with the set-backs which are so numerous and worrisome thus making the whole idea worth discarding.
Now let's begin with these numerous and worrisome problems. The fact that a country qualifies for the semi-final of a particular tournament does not make that country among the best four especially when that country is the host. This can be illustrated with Burkina Faso, host of the African Nations Cup in 1998. This team got to the semi-final of the tournament thanks to the massive home support as hosts, possible assistance from referees and luck, but lost ALL six qualifying matches to France 98 World Cup, in a group fixture consisting of Nigeria, Guinea and Kenya. Meanwhile countries like Cameroon, Morocco and Tunisia who were all representatives of Africa at the World Cup that year never made it to the semi-final stage. Furthermore, Nigeria the only African representative that got beyond the first round at the World Cup was not even present at the Nations Cup as they were suspended by CAF. This also suggests another set-back, in the sense that a country which has one problem or the other and cannot be present at the African Nations Cup, is totally out of luck as far as the World Cup goes.
Still on the issue of host countries, Algeria in 1990 hosted and won the competition but could not qualify for the World Cup held in Italy that year. Africa was represented by Egypt and Cameroon that same year, with a very spectacular performance coming from the Cameroonian team which made it all the way to the quarter-final stage of the World Cup. It might interest you to know that the Cameroonian team at the Algiers' 90 Nations Cup never made it beyond the first round, as they lost their first two matches to Zambia and Senegal respectively. It was almost the same thing for the Egyptians who lost all three first round matches to Cote D'Ivoire, Nigeria and Algeria. The issue at hand cannot be overemphasized, as statistics taken from the years in which the Nations Cup tournament coincide with that of the World Cup, proves that the Nations Cup tournament is not a true yardstick for having African's best representatives to the World Cup.
It is a known fact that the top footballing countries in Africa are usually seeded by CAF into different groups at the qualifying preliminaries so as to allow the best possible continental representation. With this new format, top countries in Africa can find themselves drawn into the same group at the Cup of Nations. Even if this can be avoided, the possibility of quarter-final clashes such as Nigeria vs. Cameroon, South Africa vs. Senegal, Tunisia vs. Morocco cannot be totally avoided. This can only end up in leaving some top and experienced countries behind while facing the risk of taking to the World Cup inexperienced and surprise teams of the Nations Cup tournament. This could turn out to be very disastrous, if not taking our football back to the dark ages such as in 1974 World Cup in Germany, when the then African Cup of Nations Champions Zaire, were trashed 9-0 by Yugoslavia.
Yet again, the World Cup is an event that takes place every four years while the Nations Cup takes place every two years. It will also certainly mean that the years in which the Nations Cup tournament does not coincide with the World Cup tournament would be redundant. This move by CAF would only serve to downgrade the Nations Cup and strip it of its uniformity and independence as a soccer competition. The African Cup of Nations is not just any cadet tournament such as the African Youth Championship or African Under-17 Championship, it is the biggest and highest showcase of soccer artistry in our continent. This prestige is ours and should be maintained in that manner. Africa should dare not give in to other footballing authorities who in past times have been clamouring for the African Nations Cup to be held once every four years. It should be made known to them that Africa is a great and large continent with 53 member nations, all seeking to develop the standard of their game.
Another set-back which still puzzles my mind is the fact that the World Cup draws are held before the African Nations Cup begins, for example November 19th 1993, Las Vegas, for USA 94, December 4th 1997, Marseilles, for France 98 and December 1st 2001, Busan, for Korea-Japan 2002. How would CAF and FIFA solve this problem? Would African countries be placed in groups in advance with their respective positions as in Africa-1st, Africa-2nd, Africa-5th or would the draws be delayed?
There are strong doubts that FIFA, world football's governing body, would not delay the World Cup draw until after the end of the Nations Cup sometime around late February or early March. There are numerous reasons why the World Cup draws are usually held the year before the World Cup begins or at least five months to its commencement. Amongst these reason are: an ecstatic level of anticipation needed for the mundial, adequate publicity and promotion for one of the greatest sporting events in the world, marketing strategies for the tournament, organizing friendlies ahead of time while avoiding group opponents, etc.
If then we are to go by the former, i.e. placing African teams into groups in advance, with their respective positions at the Cup of Nations, this could still pose a very detrimental effect to the Nations Cup. I remember quite clearly in the 8th African Youth Championship Mauritius 93, the Cameroonian team defeated the Ghanaian team by 2-0 in a Group A fixture, but the two countries still met at the finals of the tournament and this time around, the reverse was the case as the Ghanaians won by 2-0. The Cameroonian side simply gave an excuse for that defeat at the finals by saying that they were avoiding a difficult group at the World Youth Championship consisting of Uruguay, Germany and the then reigning Champions Portugal, which was awaiting the eventual winner of the AYC. The second position landed them in a less difficult group that had Russia, Colombia and host Australia. We can be sure that no country especially in a third place match, will play with keen interest to win when they are already aware that victory can land them in a group already having names like Brazil, Spain, Argentina and England. This will really be an ugly and unimaginable scenario if this is to occur. Still on this point of placing African teams into groups in advance, it actually would not leave any room for seeding an Africa team from at the World Cup draws as they simply remain unknown. Presently, no nation from our continent is enjoying this benefit but in a no distant future, an African team will definitely become a top seed in a World Cup draw. How then will this hurdle be scaled.
Another point of note is that the Nations Cup tournament is played within a short period of time, and hence the chance of gradual improvement and team recovery is slight, whereas in qualifying matches, teams have a chance to recover from injuries or other problems. In Euro' 96, the German Camp was so hit by injury that they had to import players from home in order to have a complete team which went ahead to capture the trophy. The qualifying matches also stand out in the sense that they involve more players unlike the Nations Cup which is limited to just 22 players, and thus, the qualifying matches serve as better means for discovering new talent. It is on record that Nigeria used 34 players in accomplishing her mission to USA 94 World Cup.
Apart from the fact that the qualifying matches are usually hard fought and bring the best out of quality teams, it also provides revenue for the participating nations and enables Football Associations to sell the television rights for the games. These matches are crowd pullers and therefore give the football associations some much needed revenue. For instance, matches such as Senegal Vs Morocco, Nigeria Vs Ghana, etc. would draw a horde of football enthusiasts to watch their star players which they only see on television. Only quite a few will have the opportunity in terms of traveling expenses and time to go ahead and watch a Nations Cup match live.
Having looked at these problems confronting this new format and seeing that it is a dreaded path to thread upon, I will like to make a suggestion to CAF, which I believe, if adopted, will ease, if not eradicate 80-90% of these set-backs. CAF should go ahead in combining both World Cup and Nations Cup qualifying matches. In this way, we will have five groups made up of five to six teams, the top teams only in each group will qualify for the World Cup while the top three also in each group will qualify for the Nations Cup. This will make 5 "best" teams for the World Cup and 15 teams for the Nations Cup, plus the host Nation to complete the pack. But if the host nation is already included amongst the top three, then the best 4th place finisher amongst the five groups will be selected. This format will have the benefit of reducing the stress on the players including the number of matches played, hence conserving funds and above all, the African Nations Cup will retain its integrity as a soccer competition.