BRASÍLIA — This has been a history-
making World Cup for Africa, and not
just for the number of contentious
meetings, suspensions and
threatened player boycotts. For the
first time, two teams from the soccer-
adoring continent advanced to the
knockout stage of the tournament.
But that sense of accomplishment
succumbed to reality in a matter of
hours Monday as both teams battled
hard but lost to favored opponents,
leaving behind more lasting images
of training ground strikes, cash-laden
airplanes and an assortment of
missed opportunities.
Algeria lost to Germany, 2-1, in
overtime and Nigeria lost to France,
2-0, leaving Africa without a team in
the quarterfinals for the first time
since 2006. No African team, despite
a history of dazzling players, has
ever reached the semifinals.
“Why do we go home early?”
Nigeria’s coach, Stephen Keshi, said
after Nigeria’s elimination on
Monday. “If I were on the field
playing I don’t think I would want to
go home. Maybe there are some
players without too much focus on
the game, and there’s probably a lot
of things that are going on.”
Five African teams qualified for the
World Cup, and three of them,
including Nigeria, engaged in some
player protest or impromptu
negotiations with their soccer
federations over money they were
concerned they would never see.
Cameroon took the initiative even
before the team boarded its plane for
Brazil, with the players demanding
their appearance fee for the World
Cup up front, in cash. Or else, they
said, they would not go. Last week
the players from Ghana refused to
practice and threatened a player
strike in their game against Portugal
unless they quickly received more
than $3 million, cash in hand.
One day later, the players from
Nigeria also refused to practice and
made the same demand of their
soccer federation: Pay us now, in
cash, or we go home.
Ultimately, the presidents of Ghana
and Nigeria intervened to settle the
turmoil, but not before more rancor
bubbled up. Two of Ghana’s best
players — Kevin-Prince Boateng and
Ali Sulley Muntari — were suspended
before the final game when the
disputes grew more personal.
The World Cup is the grandest
sporting event on the planet, a
chance for every nation to show off
to the world, through its soccer
teams. But unattractive issues
sometimes emerge, too.
“I think every national soccer team
reflects its country’s characteristics,”
said Steve Bloomfield, the author of
“Africa United: How Football
Explains Africa.” “In Africa, these
problems sometimes crop up. But it is
not only Africa. Four years ago,
France fell apart, and it wouldn’t be a
World Cup without seeing the
Netherlands implode.”
To be sure, France, the Netherlands
and England have at times been
splintered through infighting, and in
1974 West Germany nearly staged a
boycott ahead of its own World Cup
over a payment dispute.
Italy has been embroiled in scandals
involving top clubs, and Ireland has
had public spats over payments to
players, too. Even Johan Cruyff, the
great Dutch star, once refused to
wear his Adidas team jersey because
he was paid by Puma.
But in recent years some of the
Western African nations have taken
the money squabbling to new levels.
At the 2006 World Cup, Togo
boycotted a training session and
threatened to skip a game in order to
force its soccer association to pony up
the dough.
Ghana’s one-day training strike last
week before the arrival of its cash
came two days before it played a
pivotal game against Portugal. It was
no way to prepare for a critical
contest, and Ghana lost, 2-1.
On Thursday, before their game
against France, the Nigerian players
followed the Ghanaians’ lead,
refusing to practice and threatening
to strike unless they were paid.
Eventually, President Goodluck
Jonathan intervened and assured the
players that after the World Cup they
would get their money.
Keshi denied that there was ever a
threat of a Nigerian strike and said a
visit to the team from government
officials Sunday included a bonus
payment. The rest of the money is
expected to arrive later.
“Whatever money that we got was
just a bonus to encourage every
individual to come out and do his best
today,” he said.
Africa is a continent as diverse as any
other, but the countries that do send
their teams to the World Cup often do
not have the same resources of many
of their competitors. Some of them
also grapple with issues of corruption
and favoritism.
Sean Jacobs, a self-described “terrible
club player” from Cape Town teaches
a course called Global Soccer, Global
Politics at the New School in New
York. He noted that Algeria had no
discernible issues at this World Cup,
and played very well, but that
financial problems do tend to afflict
the Western African countries.
“Every tournament since 1990
Cameroon has had a problem with
money,” Jacobs said. He said that
there was no accountability for some
of the soccer associations in Africa
and that they “act with impunity.”
“I don’t want to talk about this
because we have become a
laughingstock,” said one Ghanaian
journalist, who asked not to be
identified. He was not the same
journalist who booed the players
after the Portugal game, prompting
Asamoah Gyan, a Ghanaian forward,
to try to fight the man.
The success of numerous African
players in the richest leagues in
Europe and elsewhere is a factor in
the recurring disputes. Upon
experiencing the first-class travel and
guaranteed money of those leagues,
those players are less tolerant of
anything less than that from their
national soccer associations.
Bloomfield, who is a former
correspondent for The Independent
newspaper in Kenya, said African
players are often distrustful of their
soccer associations and said he did
not blame them for feeling that way.
Most soccer associations pay their
players after the World Cup, once
FIFA, world soccer’s governing body,
has made its disbursements.
But some players in Africa have
concluded that their only leverage
comes before a World Cup game,
even it if appears they are holding
their nation for ransom. Bloomfield
reckons that star players like Boateng
and Didier Drogba of the Ivory Coast
now actually have more influence
than their own soccer associations,
which enables them to push the
payment issue on behalf of their
teammates, any number of whom do
not play in Europe and do not earn
nearly as much money.
The Ivory Coast did not have any
public disputes in this World Cup, but
with one of the most talented teams
in the tournament, they were
disappointed not to fare better.
Drogba, however, said the reason
Africans teams haven’t advanced as
far as the World Cup semifinals has
more to do with probability than
financial disputes.
“We only have five teams in the
World Cup out of 32,” he said.
FIFA has been watching all the
turmoil and has been involved in the
recent pay negotiations. In the future,
it wants to eliminate the problem.
“It’s sad that we end up with stories
where we are talking about a strike
and the players would not play if
they don’t receive their money,” said
FIFA’s general secretary, Jérôme
Valcke. “The fact that the money
came in cash is also sad.”
For the Ghanaian players, it did not
appear sad at all, except for the tax
implications. They each received
crisp stacks of United States bills
equaling more than $100,000 per
man, after the Brazilians took 17
percent at the airport. James Kwesi
Appiah, Ghana’s coach, said the
reason players wanted the money in
cash was a matter of tradition.
“In a normal sense it should be paid
straight to a bank account,” he said.
“But you are coming from a different
area, and you need to understand the
differences.”
One of the Ghanaian players, John
Boye, was photographed kissing his
bundle of cash. The next day, he
accidentally scored a goal against his
own team as Ghana’s World Cup
ended in acrimony. In a tournament
that held so much promise for Africa,
the rest of the teams are gone, too.
Source. www.mobile.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/sports/worldcup/world-cup-2014-african-soccer-overshadowed-by-protests.html?_r=0&referrer=