A lot of time and effort have been dedicated to finding out why no African country has ever won the World Cup since the inaugural tournament in 1930.
The question has intrigued many around the world for almost a century and numerous inquests into this anomaly have tried to figure out why this continent still struggles to catch up with other parts of the planet.
After all, Africa continues to be a well-oiled conveyor belt of talent that Europe, Asia and other parts of the globe take advantage of every year. That talent is so abundant that countries on other continents have awarded citizenship to African players to strengthen their own national teams. There are now so many players of African descent representing national teams outside the continent that this has become the norm.
Yet Africa itself has been unable to produce a national team strong enough to earn a seat at the football head table, which is dominated by South America and Europe. Some have pointed to years of colonialism, age cheating, poor facilities, political instability, famine, corruption, inadequate finances, poor development structures and inept coaching, among others, as strong factors in this continuous failure.
I will add another element and include the vile influence of corrupt referees, whose cancerous activities have had a crippling effect on the development of the game in Africa.
This continent produces some of the worst referees on the face of the earth and these pathetic parasites have been allowed to run riot for many years like a destructive virus, to the detriment of the game.
It is for this reason that I suspect the epiphany Brazil legend Pele had all those years ago might never be realised if the refereeing situation is not tackled. The Brazilian told a star-struck gallery in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1989 that an African country would finally win the World Cup before the millennium ended. It seemed the Viagra salesman’s moment of clairvoyance would come true earlier than expected when Cameroon reached the quarterfinals a year later in Italy in 1990.
But the vote of confidence has now become a curse as no African country has ever gone beyond the quarterfinals in the World Cup after Cameroon’s glorious march in 1990. Senegal stumbled at the same stage in 2002 and Ghana exited at that point in 2010.
While Pele’s prediction may have been motivated by the talent he saw during the World Under-17 Championship in Glasgow, he did not take the scourge of referees and their assistants into account.
Don’t get me wrong, poor officiating happens all over the world, but other parts of the globe do make an attempt to frustrate the activities of betting syndicates and their corrupt schemes. Not in these parts, it seems.
Consider this, the Confederation of African Football (Caf) decided in its infinite wisdom to schedule the penultimate matches of the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup at different times during the day last week, instead of playing these crucial games at the same time, as is often the case elsewhere. The practice is an attempt to reduce the possibility of match-fixing and limit the reach of betting syndicates.
Not Caf, they operate by a different set of rules and as a result Ghana played against Ethiopia earlier in the day last Thursday. Group rivals Bafana Bafana took to the field hours later when they faced Zimbabwe.
As if that was not enough, Caf saw nothing wrong in appointing match officials from Senegal to officiate in the decisive final World Cup qualifier between Ghana and Bafana. That the officials came from a neighbouring country in West Africa did not mean anything to Caf, and look what happened.
Senegalese referee Maguette Ndiaye and his assistants proceeded to impose themselves on proceedings. Besides awarding the dubious penalty that won Ghana the match, they made numerous other questionable calls that were downright disgraceful.
The SA Football Association (Safa) reported the match officials to Caf and Fifa and is demanding action against Ndiaye and company. Safa also wants a rematch at a neutral venue.
But this is Caf we are talking about here and I will not hold my breath.
• Follow Ntloko on Twitter at @ntlokom
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