OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 1.30pm.
THE struggle to represent Africa at the 2002 World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea begins this weekend with 23 first-leg preliminary matches involving the mighty and the minnows, including South Africa’s Bafana Bafana who face Lesotho in Maseru.
The build-up has, inevitably, been marred by club-versus-country clashes with Bafana Bafana electing not to call up skipper Lucas Radebe from English Premiership side Leeds United.
Swiss-based striker Shaun Bartlett has been named as the new captain togeher with four new caps in David Kannemeyer, Joseph Ngake, Jabu Pule and Arthur Zwane. Bolton Wanderers and Bafana central defender Mark Fish was not considered since he has retired from international football.
At stake are places in five mini-leagues from which the group winners will advance to the first co-hosted finals of the 32-nation international football showpiece.
A seeded draw has kept apart the leading nations on rankings compiled by world governing body Fifa, but a similar format in the previous edition did not prevent the shock early exits of Algeria and Ivory Coast.
And the minnows do have home advantage first so unseeded nations Sudan, Madagascar, Libya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania and Chad will have realistic hopes of building leads.
But it will be asking much of some other outsiders to win, even in front of their own supporters, especially Lesotho, Eritrea and Mauritania, who host Bafana, Nigeria and Tunisia respectively.
Sudan play Mozambique, Madagascar face Gabon, Libya tackle Mali, Uganda meet Guinea, Ethiopia confront Burkina Faso, Malawi play Kenya, Tanzania face Ghana and Chad meet Liberia.
Fallen giants Ghana have never qualified for the World Cup and they will not relish tackling Tanzania in the northern town of Arusha having squeezed past the East Africans in a 1998 eliminator.
Ivory Coast have also tilted towards local talent with just seven players from Europe being included by new French coach Patrick Parizon for the match in Rwanda.
Nigeria agreed to allow defender Celestine Babayaro and striker Nwankwo Kanu play in midweek European ties, but Babayaro will be in Eritrea Sunday while his Chelsea team-mates are playing Newcastle in an FA Cup semi-final.
African champions Cameroon and Egypt will make their debuts later this month as opponents Somalia and Mauritius have elected to play both matches away due to security concerns. — AFP