Hub of Cricket Information

With Pele’s prediction that an African team would win the FIFA World Cup™ by the end of the last century having proved wide off the mark, Africans are desperate for the continent' first finals to witness a meaningful achievement. Many see a semi-final place for one of the African contenders at South Africa 2010 as an absolute must, especially with the backing of a football-mad people that are sure to support their home side first and any other African nation second.

Considering that Cameroon at Italy 1990 and Senegal at Korea/Japan 2002 are the only African sides to reach the quarter-finals of the world’s showpiece football event and that no FIFA World Cup has ever had more than one African side in the knockout rounds, it seems a tall order. And while there is no doubt that the continent has continued to produce some of the world’s best players, the inconsistency of its national teams has left many scratching their heads.

However, typical of Africa, optimism somehow triumphs in the face of any odds, and many legendary figures, past and present, have gone on the record predicting success. For current players, the idea of lifting the spirits of the continent’s people to the level of ecstasy is the ultimate. “My team-mates and I want to make history and want to change the way the world sees African football. I hope that we'll be the team that is going to go to the Final and win the competition,” said injury-worry Didier Drogba, who may miss the tournament with a broken arm, but who captains what many consider to be the most talent-laden side on the continent.

Ghana legend Abedi Pele has also been in bullish form, hinting that there is a good chance for ultimate glory in the Final on 11 July. He is, however, also careful to insist that, at such a difficult event, in which the draw was not particularly kind to the African hopefuls, performance may matter more ultimately than advancement.

“It’s going to be a very tough tournament for the African teams,” Pele, who has two sons - Andre and Rahim Ayew - on the current Ghana team, admitted to FIFA.com. “They have tough groups and it’s not going to be easy for them to get out. There is a theory that says this is the best time for an African team to win the tournament – maybe that is true. We will have to wait and see, but whatever happens, I think our teams will do us proud.”

Pele no doubt has in his mind the success of his home country at the end of last year in the FIFA U-20 World Cup, when they broke through to become the first African winner of the competition. Many of those impressive youngsters have worked their way into the Black Stars side and shown at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year in Angola.

Another team on the up are South Africa, who have not lost in 12 matches, and are hitting peak form at just the right time under veteran boss Carlos Alberto Parreira. And the hosts of the FIFA World Cup typically get a huge boost from their home crowd, which will surely be the case for Bafana Bafana. South African great Lucas Radebe sees potential for the hosts to reach the semi-finals, but he also stressed that how far the African teams advance is not the ultimate measure of success.

“This World Cup is not only about football, it’s about Africa reinventing itself," said the former Leeds defender. “Of course we want success on the field, but at the same time, we would like to see this event a success off the field. We want the world to trust Africa, we want everyone to know that we are capable of organising these events. After July 12, everyone should be proud of being an African.”

For the first time, Africa has six teams at the finals, and two of the continent’s sleeping giants will be there desperate to make an impact. This will be Cameroon’s sixth FIFA World Cup, but the Samuel Eto’o-led side have failed to make a significant impact since 1990. Nigeria are playing in their fourth finals, but they have also disappointed since reaching the second round at both USA 1994 and France 1998. However, some shaky friendly results and an injury to central midfield lynchpin John Obi Mikel has hurt the Super Eagles, while the Lions of Cameroon have also been inconsistent in their warm-up matches.

Algeria are considered the biggest outsiders of the bunch, but the Desert Foxes proved themselves wily and cool customers in qualifying and at the last CAF Africa Cup of Nations, where they finished fourth. For all of the African teams, the difficulty of the groups are such that none can be considered favourites to advance, but the potential would seem to be there for almost all of them to find form and embark on a creditable run.

“We are in a different and better position than previous tournaments, and I think we are better prepared," Kalusha Bwalya said recently. “We have the confidence and experience, and I believe our teams now believe they can achieve success at this level." #

By T.O. Whenham

Get more World Cup betting information including betting bonuses, World Cup odds and our famous World Cup picks, which in 2006 earned $100 bettors over ten times their initial investment. ($100 bettors earned $1,820 click here for details)

John Obi of Nigeria

A lot has been made of the fact that this year's World Cup is the first to be played in Africa. It's about time that that happens, just like it's about time that the tournament returns to South America in 2014 for the first time since 1978.

As people have talked about the prospect of playing in Africa for the first time, they have talked about what impact that could have on the 'home teams'. That doesn't just mean South Africa, but also Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Nigeria. The South African fans are likely to be supportive of all of the African teams - especially once their local squad inevitably gets bounced after the preliminary round. That inevitably has led people to think about the home continent advantage, and what impact it will have on these six teams. Will the extra fan attention give one or more of these teams the boost needed to climb further than they typically would?

Get a 300% Sign up Bonus at Bookmaker

Use bookmaker bonus code – "DOC300"

Click Here

Before we look at how the home continent advantage has helped teams in recent tournaments there is one thing that needs to be considered about Africa - something that will temper the expectations of any possible boost at this tournament. There have been a lot of issues with tickets for this tournament. First, there are still as many as 250,000 tickets that aren't sold. That means that there will likely be some games that aren't completely full. There are also real questions about how many African fans will be in the stands. The tickets are very expensive, and a credit card was needed to order the tickets online, so a large portion of the continent's population hasn't had access to tickets. That makes it quite likely that we won't see the support for the local teams at this tournament that we have seen in recent years.

2006

Germany narrowly beat out South Africa to host the 2006 event. The European teams did very well in the event - six of the eight quarter-finalists, and all four semifinalists, were within an easy train ride of Germany.

Of those, France's upset of Brazil and Portugal's upset of the Netherlands had strong partisan crowds as at least a factor in the win. The hosts ended up finishing third in the tournament - a result that was definitely on the high end of expectations. Italy had increasingly massive crowds following them as they went all the way. There's little doubt that the location was a big factor in this tournament. European teams would still have been strong regardless of where it was played because they always are, but this was well beyond expectations.

2002

Korea and Japan co-hosted this event. This is a much better comparison to this year's tournament than 2006 was because the hosts and the teams nearby aren't nearly as strong as the teams close to Germany are.

There's absolutely no doubt that the location of this tournament had a huge impact on the outcome. Japan upset the Russians in the preliminary round to become the surprise winners of their group and move on to the elimination round. They lost their first playoff game to Turkey.

The real surprise of the tournament, though, was the Koreans. South Korea had played in five World Cup tournaments before they played host, but they had never won a single game. They broke that streak in their first game when they beat Poland. They next earned a draw against the U.S., and then stunned Portugal. Making the second round was a massive success for the team, but they were far from done. They beat the Italians with a goal in extra time, shocked the Spanish with a win by penalty kicks, and then narrowly lost to Germany in the semifinals. They wound up fourth in the tournament - about 20 places higher than they were reasonably expected to finish.

1998

France hosted the tournament and they won it, so the home field advantage isn't hard to establish here. As in 2006 there were six teams in the quarterfinals within an easy train ride of France - compared to just three in 2002 - so the location had to be a factor.

The only flaw in the argument that this tournament provides is that Spain, France's neighbors, was knocked out in the first round though they were playing in a group that shouldn't have been a particular challenge for them.

1994

The American version of the World Cup was by far the least compelling in terms of this argument. The two most popular teams on the continent - the Americans and Mexico - both made it into the elimination rounds, but neither put up much of a fight once they got there. The comparison here isn't as strong as in other tournaments, though - there aren't nearly as many teams close by, and soccer just isn't as important to Americans as it is to the other hosts.