Five African teams have qualified for the World Cup. At the various World Cups, Africa is under-represented. Whose fault is it ?
Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon, Tunisia and Morocco… The list of countries qualified for the 2022 World Cup, which will take place in Qatar from November 21 to December 18, is now known. Yesterday, at the end of the return matches of the play-offs, these five nations went to the end of the suspense to qualify.
It's time to take stock. And the first assessment is that of the lack of representation of Africa at the World Cup. Of the 32 selections that will tread the lawns of Qatar stadiums, only 5 are African, against 13 just for Europe. With more than a billion inhabitants and 54 nations, how can such an imbalance be explained?
For Loïc Ravanel, academic and researcher at the International Center for Sports Research (CIES) at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, interviewed in 2018 by France TV Info, this under-representativeness is the result of "a balance of power in the within FIFA”. If the researcher admits that we need "a more balanced territorial representation" during the World Cups, he admits that there has always been a debate within the football authorities to try to "maintain a certain level of play".
War of influence within FIFA
Today, however, UEFA is undoubtedly the most influential continental federation in world football. The South Americans and Asians, whom Gianni Infatino, the boss of FIFA, keeps in his lap, are also increasingly influential.
Result: Africa is the big loser of the World Cups. Between 1934 and 1970, the African selections were not invited to the World Cup, even if in 1966, they preferred to boycott the competitions in an attempt to gain places. In 1970, the continent finally secured… a place in the World Cup.
It will have been necessary to wait for the passage to 32 teams for Africa to have the right to five places during the World Cups. With a record six representatives at the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. The lack of competitiveness of African teams also owes a lot to the results of the continental selections, which have never gone beyond the quarter-finals.
If Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana, respectively in 1990, 2002 and 2010, reached the quarter-finals, they never managed to qualify for the semi-finals.
After 2010, the CAF, via its president Issa Hayatou, tried to keep a sixth place in the World Cup, the request remained a dead letter with FIFA. Because to offer an additional place to Africa is to take advantage of another continent.
Problem: by limiting the presence of African teams, FIFA blocks the obtaining of important financial windfalls. And therefore competitiveness.
Still, in 2026, the World Cup should host 48 teams. Africa should therefore be able to negotiate additional places. Will Africa manage to obtain three or four additional places? When we see that Algeria, Mali or Egypt will be deprived of the World Cup in 2022, we are now impatient for Africa to finally be more represented at the World Cup.