Olympic Football: Poor Preparations Cost Africa In London

If anything is to be re-learnt from the continent’s
chequered performance at the 2012 Olympic Games football tournament, it remains
an uncomfortable, sobering, truth – that talent is no substitute for meticulous
long-term planning.

And Africa certainly has talent, as it has repeatedly proven
over the years.

“African football, certainly, does not lack the talent to
win, but its administrators must learn that they must plan,” Fifa president
Sepp Blatter has said while discussing the disappointing state of the African
game.

“Other countries and continents take time to plan, and to
strategise for success. African football must do the same.”

From the golden glory of Nigeria and Cameroon in 1996 and
2000, respectively, and then Nigeria’s silver at the Beijing Games four years
ago, to 2012,  when no African side
reached the last four of either the men’s or women’s events.

Of the six teams that represented the continent in the men’s
and women’s tournaments, only Senegal, who defeated Uruguay 2-0, and Egypt, in
beating Belarus 3-1, managed to get wins in London.

Gabon and Morocco crashed out of the men’s tournament after
the group stages, as did Cameroon and South Africa in the women’s event.

Of course, the general statistics mask the rather
humiliating performances by the Indomitable Lionesses and Banyana Banyana,
whose Olympic debuts leave them with full plates of food for thought.

Cameroon’s comprehensive losses to Brazil (0-5), Great
Britain (0-3) and New Zealand (1-3) respectively, and South Africa’s losses to
Sweden and Canada, scoring once while conceding seven,  expose the huge gap the African women’s game
has to close.

One of the few highlights for the ladies was South Africa’s
surprisingly-respectable 0-0 draw against Japan, the reigning women’s world
champions.

“Our overall performance at this tournament is a clear indication that African football still has a lot of catching up to do,” says Aliou Cisse, the 2002 World Cup defender who now works as Assistant Coach of Senegal’s Olympic team.

“If we want success, then we have to plan for it and work
very hard for it. That takes time and a lot of effort. There are no shortcuts.”

But as Gabon coach Claude Mbourounot bluntly observes,
following his team’s first-round exit, those running African football at the
national association and continental levels need to take a good look in the
mirror.

“African football suffers from a lack of organisation and
structure. We need to be organised,” he said.

“We (those responsible for coaching and managing teams) are
often frustrated by people and institutions that do not understand our
administrative and technical needs.”

And as obvious as the administrative deficiencies in the African
men’s game are, the womens’ game suffers from an even worse lack of financial
attention and proper technical support.

None of the two teams that represented the continent has a
functioning women’s league, as is the case in most African countries.

“In Africa, there are several people that even question the
rationale for supporting women’s football,” says a visibly angry Lydia Nsekera,
president of the Burundi Football Federation and the first woman in the
108-year history of Fifa to sit on the world governing body’s executive
committee.

“It is clear that without regular league competition for our
women throughout the continent, there is no way our national teams will be able
to effectively compete at tournaments like the Olympics.”

Obayiuwana writes for BBC sport

After the disappointing performance of Africa at the 2010
World Cup in South Africa, where only Ghana’s Black Stars made it to the
knock-out stages of the competition, the Olympic failures serve as another
timely reminder to the continent’s administrative chiefs – reminding them that
preparations off the pitch, as well as on it, are the only way the continent
will conquer the mountaintop.

Obayinwana writes for BBC Sport

Osasu Obayiuwana