African Football

Imagine a national football team, say Spain in 2007, or England in 1965 that was tipped for great things, were killed in a plane crash before they achieved their potential. Now imagine successive governments over two decades promising to release the report of what happened and each of those governments broke their promises. And somehow, despite the tragedy, the players that replaced them reached the final the following year, losing narrowly.

African football has suffered more than its fair share of tragedies. April 28^th will always be a difficult day for Zambians, as sixteen years ago on that day Zambian football awoke to the news that it had been dealt a crippling blow. The Zambian team, bar one of Africa’s greatest players, Kalusha Bwalya,[1] Johnson Bwalya and Anderlecht’s Charles ‘Charlie Cool’ Musonda, were killed in a plane crash in Gabon, shortly after leaving Gabon’s capital, Libreville.

Tomorrow afternoon Henan Construction FC’s Zambian striker, Christopher Katongo, will lead his team out in Bata as underdogs against the Black Stars of Ghana. It is the first time that Zambia has a realistic chance of success in the African Cup of Nations since their unlikely campaign in 1994 – one that was robbed by a preventable disaster of possibly the greatest ever Zambian team.