African continent is found wanting again

We simply cannot go on like this as Africa in terms of failing to make it out of the group stages of the Fifa World Cup.

At this juncture I am sure the Confederation of African Football is hanging its head in shame after all five representatives failed to make it to the next round.

We have coaches who have won trophies in African club competition but we don’t conduct workshops to scout and discover different minds within the continent, such as the likes of coach Pitso Mosimane who is in charge of Mamelodi Sundowns.

He has won the highest competition in club level on the con- tinent and there are many other coaches like him, some who have been winning for a long time. We need to use those coaches to steer the African agenda of success.

I feel there has never been a conversation around the table to learn how these coaches become successful, apart from reading their success stories from interviews in newspapers. There is a need to sit down and discuss African football in detail.

We need to sit around the table and discuss the development of football and how to improve the current state of the game in Africa and move the continent forward.

Without even getting the entire continent to sit down in an auditorium to discuss these matters, it needs to start with the countries because they are the catalyst for a successful continent. Federations need to have this kind of conversation internally before a broader continental engagement. We need to put aside the politics and focus more on the development of football.

What prevents our football from growing is politics because these always overshadow the deeper issues pertaining to football development.

We have talented people in administration , but the problem is when football politics are brought into matters that won’t take us forward and then finally, the end product fails to produce the desired results.

I think this World Cup was Africa’s opportunity, although slim, but it was a chance nonetheless. If you look at what has been happening with the big countries in the competition, they are really struggling.

The likes of 2014 champions Germany are out along with Argentina, Spain and Portugal. This is not to say we have to celebrate when these nations get knocked out, not at all, but had we done things in the right way, right now we could have been in the knockout stages.

What is interesting is that all those big nations may have bowed out, but they will bounce back in about two years’ time in full force. And for Africa, what will happen to us if we are struggling to capitalise on their weaknesses now? We are lacking patience because we are always after results despite not doing enough spadework.

We don’t do a detailed and thorough evaluation of our problems, but we are quick to mandate the coaches to qualify for major tournaments.

If the country fails to qualify, there is this notion of getting rid of the coach because it is perceived he doesn’t know what he is doing. I don’t necessarily think it is a bad thing but we need to take time to analyse each and every factor that prevented the country from qualifying. You might find it is because of interference from the wrong people and maybe the players were not properly developed or were not in a good space to perform and help the country to qualify.

We end up missing these factors because of our growing levels of impatience and this is one of the things that holds back African football.

I also don’t think that as a continent we are doing great in terms of keeping up with the standards of international football and we are failing to move with the new trends.

We need to analyse players in their positions and develop them according to the demands of those positions. We are not doing that enough to make sure we follow the trends.