A Great Pity:

Ghana should have benefited from Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s football revolution,. Nkrumah believed that football could be used to demonstrate Ghanaian and then African achievement. The revolution built infrastructures and developed Ghanaian sport and society. It spawned Charles Kumi Gyamfi – the greatest coach in African history. It took over forty years for his achievements to be matched – surpassed even – by Hassan Shehata. A military coup in 1966 robbed Ghana of the fruits of Nkrumah's vision. Decades later Egypt became the heirs of Nkrumah’s revolution.

Ironically Ghana qualified for the World Cup in South Africa with worse infrastructures than Egypt has developed. The World Cup will begin in less than two months without Africa’s best team. The Pharaohs were stung by the disappointment of just missing out on qualifying for Africa’s World Cup and largely unfounded criticism. Egypt remain the continent’s best team whether they qualified or not, having won the African Cup of Nations three times in a row – an unprecedented achievement.

The African champions – the only confederations champions to fail to qualify – make no excuses for failing to reach the greatest stage. They knew what had to be done and failed by the narrowest possible margin. They will be missed. Algeria made it at their expense and will play against England, the USA and Slovenia. Egyptians will be cheering anyone but the Desert Foxes, due to a bitter rivalry that often spills over into violent exchanges.

Egypt will be missed for a number of reasons. They are the best team in Africa, have a gifted coach and players and infrastructures that are the envy of the continent. Their success in the Cup of Nations has been noticed, but a good run in the World Cup would have prompted other African federations and administrators to look at the Pharaohs’ set up carefully.

Africa has suffered a setback – Egypt’s absence – that has affected the development of infrastructures throughout the continent. The unfairness of the allocation of berths in the World Cup contributed to it. Oceania’s representative has a play-off against an Asian team to decide, which of them will go to the World Cup. African teams do not get a second chance. They are the only confederation, bar Oceania, which cannot justify it due to the lack of competition for New Zealand, that doesn’t get a second chance for the best loser or losers. Eight European teams get that opportunity. This should be corrected before Brasil’s World Cup.

The African Mentality:

Two of the five African nations to qualify sacked their coaches after the African Cup of Nations. Despite losing just one match in twenty-four – his last in charge of the Elephants – the Ivorian Football Association dismissed Vahid Halilhodžić a month ago. They chased Guus Hiddink unsuccessfully. Bernd Schuster and Philippe Troussier were very interested, but former England coach Sven-Göran Erikkson got the job.

The sacking of Halilhodžić was a hasty reaction to one defeat and occurred without a clearly thought out plan. Eriksson ultimately failed with England at two World Cups and the European Championship. He  had a long spell as England’s first foreign manager. Afterwards he was controversially sacked at Manchester City before being appointed as Mexico’s manager.

His sacking in 2009 was greeted with a party by many Mexican fans, who never warmed to the Swede. Bad results and unimpressive performances sealed his fate. Eriksson never got grips with Mexican football’s culture or players. Even former Mexican great Hugo Sánchez could not solve the riddle of Mexico’s fall from the summit of their confederation – the USA has overtatken them.

New coach Javier Aguirre met his first objectives. He instilled confidence back into the team and made sure that they qualified for the World Cup in South Africa – a task Eriksson had jeopardised. A disastrous spell as Director of Football at Notts County was Eriksson’s last appointment. Despite Didier Drogba’s confidence that Eriksson will do well, his performances since leaving the England job hardly inspire confidence. Both his failure and Aguirre’s success with Mexico suggests that Eriksson was not suited to Mexican football and does not bode well for Ivorian football.

Erikkson knows nothing about Africa or African football and has just over two months to establish his authority and style of play. He has virtually no time to get to know players and la Côte d’Ivoire’s football culture. It is hardly a plan for success – the African Mentality struck again – and Nigeria followed this path too. Shuaibu Amodu was demoted to coach the Nigeria-based Super-Eagles despite meeting his target of the semi-final of the African Cup of Nations, but without the hoped for style.

Lars Lagerbäck was appointed to replace Amodu. He had recently failed to qualify Sweden for the World Cup with a far easier task than Nigeria had. Lagerbäck knew nothing about Africa or Nigerian football and was hardly renowned for his attacking style of play. Just two years earlier Berti Vogts failed miserably with the Super-Eagles. He too arrived knowing nothing about Nigerian football and keen to impose European values on African football. The Vogts era was one that Nigerians prefer to forget about. Lagerbäck has a contract that expires before the next World Cup.

Meanwhile, Shehata was under pressure – absurdly – until he made history by becoming the only coach ever to win the African Cup of Nations three times in a row. Despite missing out on the World Cup – Egypt has only qualified twice 1990 and 1934. Their first qualification was not far short of a bye. Falling to qualify for the World Cup wounded the Egyptians and they arrived in Angola hungry to prove that they were indeed the best team in Africa. They did so in style.

Their third successive victory proves that the Pharaohs remain by the far the best the continent has to offer. FIFA’s rankings prove it too, so why have they been so successful? They have stability. The Egyptian FA perseveres with Shehata and the tactician is already setting about changing the system that has served them so well in the African Cup of Nations, but there is far more to Shehata’s success than his coaching and the talent of his players. They are the true heirs of Africa’s first football revolution.

Investing in Infrastructures:

Egypt’s failure to qualify for the World Cup is disastrous – for Africa. It boasts the best run FA in the continent, has developed its infrastructures and leagues, supported the authority of their coach and shown patience in him to develop. Shehata’s success is also the triumph of an enlightened Football Association – a treasure in that continent. There is no shortage of knowledgeable African football experts that appreciate the Egyptian set-up.

“I think that they have been a strong base for African football,” the legendary Zambian Kalusha Bwalya told us exclusively. “ They have been a powerhouse for African football, because the support they have – both financially and in terms of public support, especially in teams like Ahly, Arab Contractors and Ismailly. All these teams in Egypt are well established. A lot of teams are like that, so the organisational and structural thing is very strong and has been like that for many years.”

But why did Egypt take the step forward while others didn’t? “Other countries in Africa have struggled economically,” Bwalya said. “I’ll give an example – Zambia, economically has not been good when we started to play, maybe twenty-five years ago to now. The economy once was strong. Then afterwards it went through a dip and now the economy is picking up.”

The global financial crisis has affected the poorer countries more. Budgets have been squeezed and African administrators had to cope with competing demands for resources. Nevertheless, football remains a beacon of hope, but the process of sporting regeneration will be a long one.

“Before we can build, we need infrastructures and that will take a long time over the whole of Africa,” said Bwalya. “I see the average countries in Africa struggle because economically they are weak. They struggle because they have no infrastructures and administratively also you have to have the right people and be able to bring the two parties together – football and business. Unless those things come together some other African countries will always lag behind Europe and behind South Africa and behind Egypt for example.”