European clubs undermine African football

Our African players continue to endure blood and sweat to maintain the class of performance in the Afcon qualifiers under difficult circumstances.

We need to commend the players that honoured their national team call-ups, while some felt outraged for being deprived an opportunity to represent their respective national teams.

The European clubs (in particular) never had respect for Africa and this boils down to leadership that allows such omissions to persist. Mo Salah publicity admitted that his fate lies with Liverpool to decide whether to represent Egypt crucial games.

We cannot blame the player cause it is hard to make any decision that could jeopardise his future. Not Liverpool only that disrespect our African players, but many European clubs and this must be stopped!

FIFA’s leadership is under the European bureaucracy that looks down on African football and hides behind ambiguity of harmonious relations. They now allow clubs to hold their players when they felt it was necessary to be cautious of COVID-19. European soil is a super-spreader of the virus, but Euro clubs bravely released players to play for Europe’s national teams. Dr [Patrice] Motsepe must step up to stop Europe bullying now, use his authority to protect our players in foreign land.

Go back to basics, when a club refuses to release a player then they shouldn’t be allowed to use the player for the team during that period. By Wandile Mtana, eTinarha