FIFA Soccer World Cup 2010 South Africa Closing Ceremony on Racial Colonial Slave Master Era
Posted: Thursday, June 24, 2010
by Michael Gaffley
flatlinetochange
David Crary a journalist said in an editorial piece that, "This was to be Africa's World Cup, not just the first to take place on the continent but also a showcase for its teams to excel. Mostly, however, it's been another letdown, and the post-mortems have begun. He asks the question, "What went wrong for Africa.
He is indeed right on most counts. He says that, "Lack of depth on the national teams, weak youth development programs, governing bodies that lack world-class professionalism, and - perhaps most egregiously -overreliance on non-African coaches hired for brief World Cup tenures.
My friends I respect your right to think that this has nothing to do with the performance of African teams in Soccer World Cup 2010.
Let me not dwell on the scandalous past of the colonial slave masters. Let's move on. Let's acknowledge that many European and South American teams have players in their national squad from African descent. Africa had six teams in this World Cup Tournament. Thus far four have failed to qualify for the next round.
We have seen that Africa has the players. We all know that one or two players is not a team. Even the brilliant Roger Mila of Cameroon could not conquer the world with his brilliance in 1990. African teams do not play as a team, yet. They have to continuously beg to get their players to come back from Europe for national squad practices. South Africa's players however, are too domesticated. They should broaden their horizons and try their talents in other national leagues.
The real problem for soccer in Africa and in particular South Africa is with the leadership. Our soccer bosses have too many ego trips. How can you appoint a coach four months before the world cup and expect to win? Who indeed says that overseas coaches are better than local coaches? Please tell me what the difference is, if any. Algeria is the only African country with an Algerian coach. The other African teams had imported foreign alien coaches. Sweden's interests were looked after by Sven-Goren Erikson with Ivory Coast and Lara Lagerback with Nigeria. Brazil's interests were looked after by Carlos Parreira with South Africa. The interest of France was taken care of by Paul Le Guen with Cameroon. Even Serbia was represented by Milovan Rajevac with Ghana. 83.33% of these coaches were in their coaching job with a national team for less than one year. Hell no, this is not a joke, it is for real. What indeed are these soccer bosses, administrators or really soccer traitors thinking?
The South African "Bafana Tatas" should invest in youth development, soccer academies and soccer scholarships. South Africa needs many more soccer training camps. In any event these millionaires earn enough money to make fewer mistakes.
African players can match their European counterparts one by one. African teams cannot match European teams one by one, yet. The fact that South Africa beat France is great, splendid, glorious but we all know that this was a Les Bleus team that had lost its soul even before the start of World Cup 2010.
Fire the Bafana Tatas!. Fire the soccer traitors. Hire coaches now that can build genuine African teams that will rock World Cup 2014. Long live the African soccer heroes of World Cup 2010.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)I hate how the vultures descend when somebody has "lost". Why don't they get out there and try playing themselves? I agree with you, that it's a leadership and developmental problem.Thanks. I sent you a question earlier Did you get it?
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