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Journalism of Courage
Senegal’s achievement in becoming only the second African team to reach the World Cup quarter-finals ironically underlines the overwhelming influence of Europe on the international game and exposes the failure of the rest of Africa to close the gap.
The debutant Senegalese, with 21 of their squad playing in France and with a French coach, remain the lone flag bearers for Africa after Nigeria, Tunisia, South Africa and regional and Olympic champions Cameroon all failed to get past the first round, mustering just two victories between them.
Senegal’s sensational impact in their first tournament has rightly been lauded and widely welcomed as an infusion of fresh blood but it does not disguise the fact that the African climb towards equality has badly stalled. When Cameroon reached the last eight in 1990 Pele predicted that an African country would win the World Cup by the end of the century.
That deadline has already passed and unless Senegal continue to upset the formbook, the Brazilian great’s tip for an African triumph will not be fulfilled for another four years.
Africa remained on the sidelines from 1930, when Egypt lost their only game to Hungary, until 1970 when Morocco took part and the continent’s first victory did not arrive until 1978 when an impressive Tunisia team beat Mexico 3-1 and drew 0-0 with West Germany.
The improvement continued in 1982, when for the first time Africa were allocated two slots in the expanded 24-team tournament. In the current World Cup Africa’s allocation was up to five and expectations were high, with Cameroon seen as the most likely to succeed. (Reuters)
