The last
Nations Cup, also staged at West Africa, appeared to have shown: Although
at the very top Egypt eventually won and South Africa finished second,
the West and Central African teams seem to be slightly predominant in the
mass of the matches.
But those predominance
may be a fata morgana, considering that it had been at the expense of a
then weak Southern African opponency, Angola, Namibia, Zambia, and Mozambique.
Of those only Zambia has returned.
| region |
1998 |
2000 |
| North |
4 |
4 |
| West |
6(5)* |
7(6)* |
| Central |
1(2)* |
3(4)* |
| East |
- |
- |
| South |
5 |
2 |
*some sources count Cameroon
belonging to Central Africa instead of West Africa. Indeed the allocation
of Countries to the regions has not been consistent. Some have played in
several regional championships. Maybe it is more appropriate to allocate
Cameroon to Central. Basis for the allocation has an old source from the
1980's.
2000 representants are:
North: Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia,
Algeria
West: Ghana, Nigeria, Côte
d'Ivoire, Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso, Cameroon*
Central: DR Congo, Congo,
Gabon
East: -
South: South Africa, Zambia
Apart from the East, where
football keeps staying in the doldrums despite talent (typical representants:
Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan), Southern Africa have lost big in the
qualification. To see this as a sign for a regional decline should be wrong:
some teams have had a remarkable success in the 90's that had surpassed
their normal level (Namibia, Mozambique). This couldn't be expected to
be easily repeated. More disappointing is the absence of Angola, who only
two years ago came close to a place in France and since then have had quite
poor results. |
