In a seminar earlier this week by Peter Alegi, author of Laduma!: Soccer, Politics and Society in South Africa and African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World’s Game, the presenter traced the
development of football on the continent and how the game has shrugged off colonial ownership of the game.
In a seminar earlier this week by Peter Alegi, author of Laduma!: Soccer, Politics and Society in South Africa and African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World’s Game, the presenter traced the
development of football on the continent and how the game has shrugged off colonial ownership of the game.
Alegi also underlined the need for the country to create and nurture a culture in the sport. With less than a month left to go before the opening game at Soccer City, World Cup fever might be gripping the country but South Africa can hardly lay claim to owning its own football culture.
The World Cup will for the fi rst time feature six African teams at the tournament, and it could be strongly argued that, as representatives of the continent, South Africa will bring the least to the event, both on and off the fi eld.
Ivory Coast, despite being placed in a tough group, are being billed as Africa’s best chance of advancing beyond the quarter-fi nal, the furthest an African team has ever been.
And since 1900, Cameroon have not failed to thrill (in one way or another) when they’ve reached the World Cup fi nals.
The defeat suffered by holders Argentina by Roger Milla’s side is stuff that World Cup legends are made of. The young Ghanaian team is expected to follow up reaching the African Cup of Nations fi nal with a good showing in a competitive group while the Super Eagles, Nigeria are tipped as favourites to progress to the second round at least.
Even Algeria, who has not appeared at the tournament for 24 years, is likely to cause a bit of trouble with their quickpassing and high-paced game. South Africa, on paper at least, is the least fancied African team at the tournament.
More importantly, the other African countries bring something to the World Cup that South Africa does not – a proud football culture.
South Africans might be fully behind the national team but there is something of a void when it comes to the football identity of Bafana Bafana and the country.
Cameroon has earned the right on the world stage to call themselves the Indomitable Lions by ruffl ing feathers on the pitch and off.
In 2002, when they wore a sleeveless kit to the World Cup (which Fifa subsequently banned), the move was seen as a refl ection of the country’s effort to revolutionise the image of both the team and the African style of the game.
Nigeria has long been seen as a football-crazy country with their team a force to be reckoned with at any level.
Their silver medal at the Beijing Olympics proved to the world that the youth team that represented the country was a product of development of the game and a prelude for future success for the national side.
In 1998, South Africa was seen as Africa’s dream team winning their fi rst African Cup of nations in 1996, reaching the fi nal in 1998 and qualifying for the World Cup in France almost effortlessly.
The Bafana team at the time represented a united spirit and nation that treated the world of football as an arena in which it could thrive.
It was the birth of a culture in the country. Since then, this culture had dwindled to the point that South Africa is merely seen as the country that is hosting the event, and no more.
From poorly-versed commentators to the absence of professional football academies to, as Alegi pointed out, the lack of football books on the shelves of bookstores, the game is simply not something people in general are immersed in.
The South African game is not showcased, analysed or adopted at levels that are accessible to all. The country has a long way to go if it is to become a true footballing nation on par with the likes of Brazil and England.
The hosting of the World Cup, with proper planning and development of the game, can become the perfect platform to reinvigorate and advance a national football culture among South African people long after the tournament has ended.
