Written by Lee Mwiti | From Mail&Guardian Africa

It is hard to pick any positives from Africa’s World Cup ouster after Algeria’s brave but ultimately futile effort against Germany to sustain the continent’s challenge in the global football showpiece.

For the first time Africa had two representatives in the knock-out rounds, but to many it would seem likeclutching at straws after Nigeria also held out determinedly against France before being architects of their own downfall, including through an own goal.

Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana did not make it out of the group stages.

The accompanying shenanigans around the continent’s participation have not helped to dispel the general feeling of “same-old-Africa, always choking”.

Cameroon in this regard came out poorly, from threats to boycott matches over money, to that cringe-inducing game against Croatia, where Alex Song elbowed a player, and two other Cameroonians fought on the pitch, in front of a global audience of hundreds of millions.

Ghana, expected to put on a strong show, fell victim to the same row over cash, forcing the country’s president to intervene, and approve the airlifting of $3 million in cash to appease the players.

News later filtered out of infighting among the Black Stars players and the coaching staff, leading to further handwringing on the continent, which had been encouraged by the country’s strong showing against three-time champions Germany.

This malaise afflicted Nigeria, who also caused a mighty ruckus over their bonus structure, including boycotting training ahead of their last match, also forcing President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene.

Despite angst
But despite all the angst over the failure by the continent to match up to the heady days of Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010, the only African teams to reach the quarterfinals, some good did come out of the region’s performance.

One wag saw the row over money by African teams as a validation of the knowledge that the players would not get paid after they had done the job, the money usually being been eaten by fat-cat officials.

In this aspect, the teams can be seen as standing up for the respect of contracts, and contributing to the reduction of corruption on the continent.

In keeping with the traditional African spirit of sharing, the proceeds earned are expected to trickle down to their dependents in the villages, doing a better job of redistribution of Fifa’s bonanza from the billions of dollars in sponsorship cash than any other scheme currently in play.

This is crucial for a game deemed to be for the masses—in addition to the emotional high, their pockets will also benefit from the tournament’s global—and financial—appeal.

The persistence of Algeria also forced Africans to take a fresh look at the concept of Africanness. North Africa is rarely seen as being African, with even international organisations classifying the region as Middle East.

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