By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (April 30^th 2021)

Failure?

African football never ceases to amaze. It delivers the good, the bad and the extremely ugly far too often. It produces incredibly talented players against the odds but appears incapable of making the final leap to glory at the highest levels. Predictions of great African success have come and gone, but never has the continent delivered on its potential. Why?

This series of articles will examine some of the reasons. From colonialism to corruption, there are many reasons – some not talked about. Africa’s chance and woes too began many years ago. Corruption is nothing new and it was not confined to football, but it had an effect at many levels. But what about the effect of colonialism on Africa and its football?

Under-developing African Football – Colonialism

The late great Guyanese historian Walter Rodney was assassinated in 1980. His legacy lives on. His most famous book is How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, but what of football? Do his arguments apply to football in colonised countries? The short answer is of course they do.

Whilst it is true that the beautiful game was introduced to Africa by Europeans, its organisation and administration remained in the hands of Europeans. African Football was also underdeveloped by Europeans through colonialism on many levels – the effects of which have lasted decades.

The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) was established in 1904. All the founder members were European. The first non-European member was South Africa, which was only interested in white players despite the importance of a team of Basotho players touring England a decade earlier.

A decade after the Stockholm Olympic games, Egypt acquired some autonomy. Al-Ahly refused to participate in the season of 1921 in protest at colonial teams’ participation. Egypt was the first African nation to take part in the Olympic Games Football Tournament – then organised by FIFA. It was the only credible football tournament for international matches. Interestingly, Egypt played in the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, before its Football Association was affiliated to FIFA. Bizarrely, despite its affiliation to FIFA, South Africa never competed in the Olympic Games Football Tournaments of the 1920s when it really mattered.

Despite finishing fourth in an Unofficial World Cup – the 1928 Olympic Games – Egypt did not play in the first official FIFA World Cup in Uruguay in 1930. No colonised nation in Africa or Asia did. Nor did any of the independent nations in those continents.

1934’s World Cup is interesting too. Egypt qualified by thrashing Britain Mandate Palestine – no Palestinians played in the matches.

Football, Colonialism, Independence and World Cups

Colonial administrations developed colonised nations to suit their interests. Independence began to sweep through Africa and Asia almost two decades after the first Official FIFA World Cup. Just three tournaments occurred before the Second World War, but the allocation of places in the tournaments show an outrageous imbalance had emerged. In 1930 there were 13 participants, seven from South America, one from North America and five European nations, but not the most successful European team in the 1928 Olympic games – Italy. The next hosts refused to travel, although they sent spies to observe Oriundi – foreign players with Italian origins. Argentina lost the final to Uruguay and Italy recruited Argentinian Oriundi for their World Cup four years later. Uruguay’s World Cup was one of the weakest ever as many European nations were not interested.

Some stayed away from pique at not being selected to host the tournament, others through distance and the Home Nations (Great Britain’s team at previous Olympic Games, 1908, 1912 and 1920) were not interested. In fact, they had resigned from FIFA, but were still invited to participate.

But what of Africa? No evidence has been provided that Egypt, a FIFA member and one of the four best nations in world football at the time, was invited, even though Romania participated because their new King Carol II entered his country in the tournament. Why?