The World Cup being among the most important stages in sports, celebrates not just only national pride, it is a showdown of the best continental representatives carrying an entire race behind them. It is Africa’s time to be loud, an opportunity that will send cultural shock-waves across the globe. Performances of the participating African teams are a given for status quo boost, but so is the presence and participation of the rest of the continent. Africa make some noise!
In the past, African teams were perceived as little to low league players at the World Cup and yet Africans have thrived in the big leagues of this world to become household names at international level. The rankings, as a proof of fact don’t help but skepticism – an attitude felt from home and spread like wildfire – has done little to help African teams make a presence on such a highly politically, economically, and socially motivated stage. It’s bad enough that racism has reared it’s ugly face in sports.
As much as the FIFA Federations in many respective African countries have worsened chances through poor and corrupt management, Africans still love to play the sport. It is a community-social bridge experienced as a pass time to connect with others.
The cults that follow some of the biggest leagues in the world, most especially Europe, are unbelievably loyal to their favorite teams. In Uganda alone, small scale local distributions of live football matches in kiosks and bars is a predominant economic and social activity. The World Cup needs just as much an more passion especially since sports plays a huge role in social equality. No matter the outcome, every African team is a flag for the continent and football is the sport we love.
In 2002, when Senegal eventually reached the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup to become one of only three African teams to do so (the first being Cameroon in 1990; the other being Ghana in 2010), the loss to Turkey struck a code of pain. No matter the country, Senegal was Africa that day just as Ghana was at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa when they became only the third African team to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.
