/ 14 October 2011

Wake-up call for Africa’s stars

Wake Up Call For Africa's Stars

The playing fields of Africa have been dramatically levelled and the balance of power has shifted, with lightweights Botswana and Niger qualifying for the biennial African Nations Cup for the first time.

So-called superpowers such as South Africa, Egypt, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria — the latter three all representatives of the continent at the 2010 Fifa World Cup — have failed to qualify for next year’s tournament and introspection is clearly needed.

In Nigeria, coach Samson Siasia has been summoned by the football federation to explain why the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the first time in more than 32 years — a failure that has plunged the country into deep mourning.

But in Zambia football association president Kalusha Bwalya fired Italian coach Dario Bonetti even though the team had qualified for the Gabon-Equatorial Guinea jamboree.

“It is true we have parted ways with Bonetti,” said Bwalya. “We did a postmortem of our campaign, the whole package, including training sessions and the manner in which the team played. We were not happy and, although we have qualified, we believe the team could have performed better.”

His view is supported by a large number of Zambians, who claim the team looked unfit under the Italian. But there is also a larger section of the population that believes his sacking was politically motivated because he was employed by the previous government of Rupiah Banda and was not the association’s choice.

A remarkable story that unfolded in Zambia is perhaps the major reason why Bonetti was sacked. Libya refused to wilt under pressure from Zambia and came away with a valuable point that secured them qualification as one of two best runner-ups, the other being Sudan.

The Libyan coach, Marcos Paqueta, attributed the team’s success to the mental strength the players displayed despite the political turmoil in the North African country, where rebel forces intent on ousting Muammar Gaddafi have been locked in a 10-month battle that has seriously affected sporting activities, let alone proper preparations.

Cameroon coach Raymond Domenech’s contract might also not be renewed after the Indomitable Lions crashed out. They failed to beat a resurgent Senegal in two meetings and Domenech has seemed unable to take proper charge of his star-studded squad.

A brawl between captain Samuel Eto’o and midfielder Alex Song threatened to boil over, and although football association president Iya Mohammed appeared to have put the lid firmly on the simmering tension, it was clear that Cameroon were a sharply divided team.

In Niger, classified as one of the poorest countries in the world, President Mahamadou Issoufou received the triumphant Mena at the airport when they arrived from Egypt, where they had lost 3-0 but qualified nonetheless because of a better points standing than fellow group members South Africa and Sierra Leone. “I am completely satisfied that our team proved Niger is one of the best across the continent,” crooned the excited president. “We have been fighting for 51 years and now we have made it. This is a chance for the people of Niger to learn a lesson — that in all areas, we can be among the best.”

Sierra Leone assistant coach Christian Cole said he had studied Bafana Bafana and discovered that they were “one-dimensional”. According to Cole, rivals simply needed to contain Katlego Mphela and the South Africans would have no idea where the opposition goal was located.

Much has been said and written about South Africa’s miscalculation of the rules, but perhaps the time has come for a major restructuring in the national team.

It is true that several key players were missing because of injuries — Steven Pienaar and Kagisho Dikgacoi, in particular, were sorely missed.

But a country with resources like South Africa has should not struggle to assemble at least two national teams at a go.

Dropping dead wood
Although some had believed that last year’s World Cup would inspire Bafana Bafana to lift their game to a higher level, the majority of players who featured in it now seem to be ensconced in a comfort zone and perhaps need to be rudely shaken from their siesta.

Maybe now is the time for coach Pitso Mosimane to bring in additional players such as May Mahlangu, who has won a league championship in Sweden twice and has featured in the European Championship. Let us see what they can offer.

There is an arm-long list of South African players scattered all over Europe. The Jacoby brothers, who play in the Scottish League, as well as countless others of Greek, Portuguese and Italian descent playing for various European clubs need closer inspection.

Joshua Silva (Panthrakikos) in Greece, Guilio Guiricich (Gallaratese) in the Italian League, Sergio Marakis and Luis Carlos (Maritimo) in the Portuguese League and Elias Charalambous, who plays for Alki Lamaca in Cyprus, are but a few of the players worth bringing home to see what they can offer the national team, especially as it struggles to hit the back of the net.

This is not to suggest that Mosimane should dismantle the entire team to bring in fresh faces. But dropping some players and bringing in new ones might perhaps shake up those who believe they are permanent residents in the Bafana Bafana camp and help revive their hunger for the game.

Equally important, South African teams need to start taking pan-African club competitions seriously. They are training grounds on which players can be exposed to the harsh conditions on the continent to toughen them up mentally.

In addition, the South African Football Association urgently needs to finalise an agreement with the Premier Soccer League for the release of the country’s best players to feature for the under 23 team in their quest to qualify for the London Olympic Games now that the senior team has failed a simple test for the second, consecutive time.

Prophets to blame for losses
Four of Africa’s football giants will miss the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations to be co-hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. The countries — Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa and Cameroon — have taken 14 trophies since the competition was first held in 1957. Nigeria have won it twice, South Africa once, Cameroon four times and Egypt a record seven times. Is it pure chance that all these titans failed, or were darker forces, perhaps, at work?

Depending on which version of the saga you read, the reason why Bafana Bafana did not qualify could be because of the failure to read the Confederation of African Football rules. There could be another reason, an extra-terrestrial one, hingeing on an unpaid debt to a sangoma.

The Daily Sun reported this week that a KwaZulu-Natal sangoma, S’bonelo Madela, is owed money and that the ill fortune would continue until he was paid what was due to him. As this is the first time Bafana Bafana have failed to qualify from a relatively easy group — Egypt, Sierra Leone and Niger — perhaps Madela must be given what he is owed.

“I am very happy they didn’t win. I am not sad at all. How can I be when I am owed so much money? The worst is yet to come,” he said.

It was reported that Madela was promised R100 000 by the South African Football Association to help the team win their final 2010 World Cup group game against France.

Why Bafana Bafana needed a sangoma’s help to beat an ill-disciplined, dysfunctional team is not immediately clear. If you don’t remember the riddled story, former France striker Nicholas Anelka told then-coach Raymond Domenench “go screw yourself, dirty son of a whore”.

Anyway, with or without the sangoma’s help, they beat the French team 2-1. Instead of R100 000, Madela got just a tenth of that. Which might explain Bafana’s failure to make it to the 2012 tournament.

Nigeria will not be at the tournament next year either. It is not a sangoma at fault this time, but a prophet, TB Joshua, an evangelical preacher. Nigeria drew 2-2 against Guinea. Nigerian striker Peter Odemwingie, who also plays for English premiership side West Brom, does not blame the game’s stalemate on his defence or his team’s failure to score more goals than their Guinean opponents.

“The prediction of Prophet TB Joshua really affected us. We thought we could see him and see how he could overturn the negative prediction, but the officials came with another prophet who prayed for us and told us that all was well,” the player said.

These two incidents recall a story I read years ago, but I cannot remember their central protagonists. In the 1990s, a West African team, about to play a team in a neighbouring state, paid the customary visit to the sangoma’s shrine. The sangoma told them that whoever from their team scored first would soon die.

A few minutes into the match the West African team was awarded a penalty. No one, of course, wanted to take it. Rules being rules, the penalty had to be taken, and someone eventually stepped up.
He put the ball as far away as possible from the goals. He kicked the ball out for a throw in for their opponents. The game ended 0-0. They lost the return match 1-0.

The moral of these two incidents is: sometimes it is better to just play football and ignore the extra-­terrestrial. — Percy Zvomuya