Sports Talk with Ayodele odumade
POOR WORLD CUP SHOWING
BY AFRICAN FOOTBALL
2014 Was another exciting year in the World of Sport. Unfortunately it was a disappointing year for African Football judging by their performances at the World Cup in the summer. We are nowhere near Pele’s prediction that an African team will win the World Cup by the year 2000. The talent is there but once again African football has fallen short on organization and the administration. Bonus wrangles in the Ghanaian and Nigerian camps are symptomatic of the continued Achilles heel of African Football. We are simply nowhere near making an impact on the world stage and it is difficult to see how things would change drastically between now and 2018! Only Nigeria and Algeria managed to reach the second round in Brazil, but they were both easily dispatched by better teams.
CAF GETTING WORSE
IThe governing body of African football has not fared well either as they continually score own goals! I have mentioned many times that Issa Hayatou should have long retired to give someone else the chance to take African Football to the next level. Apart from securing more places for Africa at the World Cup during his tenure in office, I am struggling to see what else Hayatou has done for African Football. I have mentioned in the past that the areas we need to concentrate on are medical research into cardiac arrests, which are prevalent in African football, improvement of stadia, insurance and pensions of players as well as the way the media rights of African competitions are sold.
To make matters worse, Morocco decided not to host the African Cup of Nations and CAF decided to give the hosting to Equatorial Guinea! It would not have been a bad decision but for the fact that Equatorial Guinea had already been disqualified during the qualifiers for fielding an ineligible player! How on earth could CAF then decide to give it to them? Hayatou has no shame. He has become stale and needs to go. How can one man be in charge of an organization for so long? CAF is being run like a mafia but why should we be surprised? FIFA is run the same way, what, with the spate of allegations regarding the awarding of rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
BLESSING OKAGBARE
What a wonderful year Blessing Okagbare has had, as she continues to make waves in Athletics. In addition to the two gold medals she won at the
Reflections on 2014