In the weeks to come we shall be critically examining what went wrong with African teams particularly in the wake of expectations that this would be their World Cup and that possibly one of them will win it. For now though we can take it that the vision to take African football to the zenith of world football is hampered and limited by the present strategy that sets out only to discover talented players and to send them to clubs in Europe, the home front completely forgotten and neglected. So far, although it has impacted significantly and has advanced African football up to a point, the effect of this strategy is that football development generated that way has reached a plateau as revealed by the experience in South Africa when all but one of the six African representatives have been knocked out in the first round.

No African team should expect to win the World Cup if this strategy as adopted is maintained without recourse to what happens in the domestic game. A home development strategy must also be in place to ensure a more solid foundation with the subsequent exportation abroad serving only as a compliment to polish the raw material. The domestic strategy will ensure better technical, psychological and tactical development of the African player before they leave home. There must be established a very good programme that will ensure a  continuos process of production of players of quality. In short, domestic football should be better structured to become, as is done in Brazil and Argentina, a continuous breeding ground for gifted footballers. That is what has given these countries the edge. Ghana has shown the way once again. The country’s domestic game is growing in leaps and bounds and there is a steady stream of players coming through with better foundations from home.