When FIFA mooted increasing Africa’s World Cup slots to nine, it sparked immense furore among puritans, who questioned the rationale. CHRISTIAN OKPARA writes that Africa’s superb performance on the pitch has put the argument to rest.

Since its inception, the FIFA World Cup has provided lovers of the game with a platform to see the world’s best football players competing for their nations while vying to become the best among equals.
  
With only eight teams from Europe and South America lifting the World Cup since it debuted, both continents have successfully exchanged the trophy every four years thus far. These successful countries are Brazil, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Uruguay, France, England and Spain.  
 
But in recent times, teams from outside Europe and South America have been knocking on the door, and according to experts, it is only a matter of time before a team from either Africa or Asia mounts the throne.
 
Following the game’s growing global development, FIFA recently decided to increase the number of participating teams in the World Cup from 32 to 48 to accommodate more countries and give those that hitherto had no chance of qualifying for the championship the opportunity to join the elite club of global football.
 
Thus, Europe’s slot was increased from 13 to 16, Africa got nine from erstwhile five, Asia’s slots rose from 4.5 to eight, South America rose from 4.5 to six spots, North America’s teams were increased to six, while Oceania, for the first time, got a direct qualification slot.
  
But this increase in numbers for Africa, Asia and North America did not go down well with some Europeans, who felt that giving African nations additional slots would dilute the championship’s quality and unfairly squeeze out traditionally favoured nations.
  
Among the figures who criticised FIFA for the move are current Ghana coach Carlos Queiroz and the immediate past Italian coach, Gennaro Gattuso.
  
While Queiroz argued that rarity gives the World Cup its prestige, claiming that expanding the tournament to 48 teams risks turning it into a “vulgar, ordinary competition,” Gattuso expressed frustration on behalf of European teams, arguing that it was unfair for African nations to get nine direct spots while higher-ranked European teams are forced to battle through difficult playoffs.
 
These arguments were met with resistance from some African football experts, including former Nigerian captain Sunday Oliseh, who said the continent’s increased allocation was a matter of fair and proportionate representation, given its massive population and growing talent pool, rather than a handout.
 
Oliseh’s defence of the continent has been proved right by the performances of African teams against European and South American opposition at the ongoing World Cup in North America.
 
Africa entered the tournament with 10 teams following DR Congo’s success in an earlier inter-confederation playoff against North America’s Jamaica, and out of the 10, nine progressed to the round of 32 after the group stage. The only exception in this case was Tunisia, which failed to make the round of 32.
 
The African teams did not just scrape through; they went toe-to-toe with global powerhouses. One of the talking points during the group stage of the tournament was Cape Verde’s performance against pre-tournament favourite Spain, which the tiny African nation held to a 0–0 draw before forcing Uruguay to a 2–2 draw.

In other games, Morocco secured a 1–1 draw against Brazil, while Egypt played out a gritty 1–1 deadlock with Belgium.
 
At the end of the first stage of the tournament, Africa recorded a 90 per cent success rate; South America had 83 per cent, Europe (80 per cent), North America (50 per cent), Asia (22 per cent) and Oceania zero. Africa’s leading light, Morocco, which went as far as the semifinals at the 2022 edition of the tournament in Qatar, gave the continent more to cheer in the round of 32 by eliminating one of the pre-tournament favourites, the Netherlands, while Cote d’Ivoire were narrowly edged out by Norway, who defeated the 2023 CAF champions by 2-1.
 
At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, not one of Africa’s five teams made it out of the group stage, recording just three wins from 15.
 
Speaking on the continent’s rise in the game, Confederation of African Football (CAF) President Patrice Motsepe puts it down to the “hard work and investments in youth football development, coaching and professional football leagues” across the continent.
 
The first signs of improvement came in Qatar four years ago, as two African nations reached the knockout stage for the first time.
 
Before the 2022 World Cup, only three African teams had reached the quarter-finals – Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010.
 
Morocco achieved what no African country had done, reaching the semifinals by beating Belgium, Spain and Portugal, before France ended their run.
 
Former Super Eagles Captain, William Troost-Ekong told BBC Sport Africa recently that Morocco has created a blueprint of how success in football can be done, “which is years and years of investing in grassroots football and academies.”
 
He said: “Morocco has invested not just money but also time and effort, with a clear idea of how they can progress.
 
“The facilities they have, the consistency throughout their age groups, I think that’s the only blueprint you can follow.”
 
A decade ago, Morocco would have been given little chance of beating the Netherlands, but no one would dismiss their chances today.
 
Indeed, there is an argument that the North Africans should really be favourites. After all, they are now sixth in the FIFA world rankings – one place above the Netherlands.
 
With the top four-ranked countries – Argentina, Brazil, England and France – kept apart in the bracket, it makes it more difficult to emulate Morocco and reach the last four.
 
An African country would likely have to beat one of those four to reach the semi-finals again. For instance, Morocco are on a collision course with France in a potential quarter-final.
 
Defending champions Argentina, who play Cape Verde tomorrow, have four African teams in their bracket and could potentially face one in each round on the way to the semifinals.
If the expanded World Cup format turned out to be an opportunity for Africa, the opposite is true for Asia.
 
Across 27 games, Asia’s nine representatives managed only three victories, averaging 0.67 points per game. African nations played 30 matches and won 10 at 1.33 points per game.
 
In the final round of group games, there were five Africa-versus-Asia matches crucial to qualification. Asian countries did not win any of them, losing four.
 
Four years ago, Australia, Japan and South Korea made the first knockout round. This time, it is just Australia and Japan.
 
While African teams have grown and improved – five qualified for the knockout phase for the first time – Asia has gone backwards.
 
“Other than Japan, Australia and maybe Iran, every team needs to improve,” said Uzbekistan head coach Fabio Cannavaro after his team lost all three matches.
 
Jordan’s Coach, Jamal Sellami, whose team lost all three of their group games, hinged Africa’s rise on the large number of the continent’s players in Europe. He said that the only way Jordan can compete against other major countries is to have players in big European teams.

He said:  “The most important thing for Jordanian football, if it is to have a greater chance of achieving results, is to have players competing in stronger and more competitive leagues.”
 
The numbers support this: 20 of Morocco’s 26-man squad play in Europe, and 15 of those in the top five leagues. The DR Congo, the last African nation to qualify through the inter-confederation play-offs, has 24 players in Europe – though only 11 in a major league.
 
Only Egypt has a low number, with 17 players at clubs in the domestic league and 6 at European teams.
 
For Jordan, forward Musa Al-Taamari is the sole player in Europe, at French club Rennes, while Iraq and Uzbekistan have three in Europe, and Iran has four.
 There is no comparison to Asia’s best-performing countries. Japan have 23 players in Europe, Australia 16 and South Korea 15.
 
But keen followers of the African game argue that the continent’s steady rise in football is not just down to the number of players in Europe; after all, Nigeria has more stars in Europe than the others. Rather, it is a direct result of institutional reforms across the continent, with many of these countries now investing in infrastructure and human development.

In most of these countries, especially the North African and Southern African countries, as well as Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and DR Congo, the governments have paid close attention to the governance of the game, creating the room for improved corporate governance that has restored corporate confidence, attracting major multi-million dollar global partners and corporate sponsors.
 
In the past 12 years, Morocco, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire have dominated African youth football, with many young stars making their way into the senior national teams.
 
“Senegal experienced an unprecedented golden era across CAF competitions between 2022 and 2026. The U-17 and U-20 sides both secured historic continental titles, including back-to-back FIFA U-17 World Cup qualifications,” former Enyimba defender, Ikechukwu Ogbonna, said, while justifying the Teranga Lions sudden dominance in the African game.
 
South Africa is the defending African U-20 champion, while Morocco is the current world champion after defeating the six-time champions, Argentina, 2-0 in the final held in Santiago, Chile.
 
Some of these players, including forward Yassir Zabiri, are in the current Moroccan team at the World Cup. So, it is no surprise that these Africans are at the top echelon of the global game.
 
“That cannot be said of Nigeria, which in the past grew players from the youth teams to dominate the African game. Nigeria was once the fifth-best team in the world from 1993 to 1995, but now we cannot even qualify for the World Cup. We have failed to make it back-to-back, while other African countries are standing their own against the world’s best,” he said.