Africa does not deserve the ten Fifa World Cup slots!

Since the 1998 Fifa World Cup in France, Africa has had five teams represent the continent.

This has lasted through seven Fifa World Cup editions, including the last one in Qatar, 2022. However, at this year’s World Cup, which kicked off on Thursday, June 11, Africa’s representation is going to be 10 teams.

The simple maths suggests that Africa’s participation at the World Cup has gone up two-fold. It is a 100% increment. Of course, this has coincided with Fifa’s decision to increase the number of participating teams at the World Cup from 32, an arrangement that started at the 1998 World Cup, to 48.

Not only was this such an outlandish decision by Fifa in my opinion, considering how it waters down the quality of the World Cup. But, personally, I do not believe that Africa deserved to have more than five teams at this tournament co-hosted by the USA, Canada, and Mexico; at least not yet.

I started watching the Fifa World Cup in the 1970s during which time, Africa would have only one representative. Obviously, the slots then were given out on merit; purely based on how competitive teams were from the different confederations.

Considering that Morocco were the first African team to reach a Fifa World Cup semi-final in 2022, is proof that African teams are still a work in progress. Compare that to Europe or South America. Of the last ten World Cup finals, there has been a team from Europe.

In fact, of those finals, three have had only European teams. That is a pointer to how strong football is in that part of the World. I see no reason why Europe would not have more slots. It should never be about affirmative action playing at the World Cup.

Instead, slots should be earned, based on how competitive the continent, or better still, teams are. For example, since seven of the last ten World Cup finals have involved European and South American teams, then, there is no reason why they must not have the lion’s share of World Cup slots.

We have seen Africa’s slots increase from just one, when Egypt were Africa’s maiden and only representatives at the 1934 World Cup in Italy. That continued until 1978, when Tunisia also made their World Cup debut as Africa’s sole representative.

Prior to that, it was Zaire, now the DR Congo, as Africa’s only team in West Germany. But in 1982, Africa were added a second slot to compete in the World Cup that Spain hosted. Cameroon and Algeria represented Africa with honour.

Cameroon drew with the eventual champions Italy 1-1, while Algeria, which bowed out as a result of a syndicate between West Germany and Austria, in what was dubbed the «Disgrace of Gijon», beat the West German’s, who were runners-up in that tournament, 1-0 in the preliminary rounds.

Clearly, Fifa did not hurry to reward continents with more slots to the World Cup. Progress had to be seen festering. It was evident that after Zaire lost 0-9 to Yugoslavia in 1974, less of those humiliating scorelines had to be seen before Africa secured a third slot at the 1994 World Cup.

While it is true that African teams: Morocco, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Algeria are quite high in the Fifa rankings, there is need to sit back and reflect on how strong African countries are, to actually go far in the tournament.

I have doubts about the quality of teams like Cape Verde, Tunisia, DR Congo, and Ghana to be honest. Let us take an example of Tunisia. They have never impressed at the World Cup, yet, they have been in five of the last seven tournaments.

On a number of occasions, teams that have qualified for the World Cup through the Caf qualifiers have been outliers. I believe, there have been a number of teams from Africa that have simply been a flash in the pan; true one-time wonders.

We saw that with Angola and Togo in 2006, making it to the World Cup in Germany. Was it necessarily because of how good they were, or merely lucky punches that got them to qualify? Oftentimes, African teams do so many things, including underhanded ones, especially at home, to gain advantage.

Many would remember the incident involving Libya and Nigeria two years ago during the qualifiers. Although Libya were punished by Caf eventually, when they lost their home game by forfeiture, for subjecting Nigeria to apparently unsportsmanlike treatment, Libya accused Nigeria of the same, although no punishment was meted out on the West Africans.

With such occurrences in African football, there are still results registered by teams unfairly. Yet, they end up at the World Cup and get humiliated. That is rarely the case in Europe though.

So, instead of giving Africa more World Cup slots, why would Fifa not reward Europe with more considering how the game there continues to grow and evolve? Besides, the best players in the World, actually play in Europe.

Look at how tough the Uefa Champions League is proving to be every passing year. It is in the Uefa Champions League that the best players from Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Colombia, among many others from South America play, too.

I read some report which stipulate that Africa was given more World Cup slots because they have more Fifa members. To me, that is lame. South American teams have won a record 10 World Cups, and have reached 15 finals of the 22 thus far.

Europe has won 12 World Cups. So, why would Europe have only 16 World Cup slots while Africa has 10? Surely it does not add up.

Just like we see berths in the Caf club competitions allotted, where Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Tanzania, and South Africa have more clubs competing for honours compared to the number that comes out of Uganda, Rwanda, Cameroon, Ivory Coast or Ghana for that matter, representation at the World Cup should be based on the performance of the continents at previous World Cups. Merit!