Feature: Reasons behind North Africa’s big lineup for the World Cup

Published on: 17 November 2017

A Golden Generation led by the Ivory Coast spearheaded West African nations dominance on the continent in recent years. Blessed with a slew of talent peaking right around the same time, the sub region simply owned the continent as consistent appearances at the world tournament by countries in the sub region became the norm.

The likes of Togo joined the Elephants in parading a wealth of the country’s best players. While the level of talent didn’t match up to glorious teams in past years, Ghana and Nigeria chimed in with an impressive group headlined by the likes of Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari, Stephen Appiah, Vincent Enyeama and Mikel Obi. Since 2006, three teams from the sub region have consistently made it to the World Cup to the chagrin of other regions on the continent particularly North Africa where sole representatives made the cut. Algeria did in 2010 and 2014 with the region represented in 2006 by Tunisia as Cameroon and Angola filled the remaining spots.

Ironically, winners of the African Nations Cup between 2004-2010 hailed from the region with Morocco losing in the 2004 Final against Tunisia and Egypt winning the next three editions. However, failure to reciprocate the same form to World Cup qualifiers was a big blot on the incredible run.

Times have changed and in a strange twist of fate, North Africa dominates the continent’s representation at next year’s tournament with three out of five picks. Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia have qualified to Russia at the expense of Ivory Coast and Ghana with Togo failing to qualify from the preliminary round.

Nigeria and Senegal complete the list to underline the superiority of the continent’s football power regions. But the tables turned in favor of North African countries this time around due to these reasons:

Restored internal harmony and structure

Politics and Sports are always in the mix and forever linked and so it was of little surprise ripples of the “Arab Spring” were felt in football in the region. Following a trio of continental titles, Egypt failed to qualify for the next three editions of the tournament as sports activities grounded to a halt. Its domestic league was suspended several times due to political instability in the country. It is no secret after peace was restored, the Pharaohs made it to this year’s final game.

In Tunisia, where uprisings that toppled political dictators began, its national team exited the 2010 Cup of Nations at the group stage and has since failed to progress beyond the quarter finals. While Morocco wasn’t affected as much politically by the uprisings, there were tempestuous years in the country’s football circles.

Between 2010 and 2015, the Atlas Lions failed to progress beyond the group stage twice, failed to qualify in 2010 and withdrew from the competition in 2015. A couple of tranquil years were the best remedy to get the giants back on their feet and claim the spotlight they had departed for a long time.

Luck finally went their way

Due to a great deal of misfortune beyond politics, North African sides were on the back foot in recent World Cup qualifiers.

However, top teams from the region finally got the lucky bounce as the last qualifiers were riddled with crisis for West African countries. Egypt caught a Ghana side- that got complacent after making three straight appearances at the mundial- off guard and skipped past them. With the Black Stars dealing with bonus rows with former Sports Minister Nii Lante Vanderpuye and playing in mundane fashion under Avram Grant, Egypt helped itself to two straights wins including a 1-0 win over Ghana to pace the group. A rebuild midway through the qualifiers under Kwesi Appiah was bound to run into trouble anyway.

Morocco faced an Ivorian side that has remained flat since peaking at the 2015 Cup of Nations and set to have another group of players led by Salomon Kalou retire from national duties. It didn’t hurt, the man responsible for their triumph in Equatorial Guinea, Herve Renard was in the dugout for the Moroccans while the Ivorians had Marc Wilmots- a man who can’t the best out of a talented bunch.

Got the right men on the bench

After flipping through several coaches of varying degrees with little success, Egypt and Morocco made big call ups that fueled World Cup berths after extensive absences.

While Hector Cuper replaced Shawky Gharieb and before him Bob Bradley, Morocco did away with Eric Gerets, Rachid Taoussi, Hassan Benabichia and Baddou Ezzaki before appointing two time Cup of Nations winner Renard. Both men proved their quality as one loss was registered in 12 games between Morocco and Egypt in the qualifiers.

After playing behind West Africa in recent years, North African teams finally dominate the continent’s World Cup roster.

By Yaw Adjei-Mintah @YawMintYM on Twitter

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