Cybereagles

MANAUS, Brazil - Two weeks before the 2014 World Cup, Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure threatened to walk away from his club team, Manchester City. By failing to adequately celebrate his birthday, the Premier League title winners had treated him with "disrespect."

Nevermind the fact Toure makes in the vicinity of $350,000 per week, the way City treated him was "sickening," according to his Russian advisor, Dmitry Seluk. Speaking of sickening, welcome to the grossly convoluted Confederation of African Football (CAF), a group of teams that continues to disappoint every four years.

Following the Ivory Coast's 2-1 loss to Colombia on Thursday, CAF sides -- Nigeria, Algeria, Ghana and Cameroon -- are a combined 1-5-1, including an embarrassing performance from Cameroon here in the jungle Wednesday night. A 4-0 loss to Croatia at nearby Arena Amazonia led to Cameroon manager Vulker Finke calling his side's performance a disgrace.

More disgraceful, however, are many of the players themselves.

An infectious, me-first mentality goes beyond Toure's disgusting lack of self-awareness. Its disingenuous tentacles reach across multiple federations. Cameroon's 23-man squad, for instance, refused to board a plane to Brazil just four days ahead of their World Cup opener against Mexico, a 1-0 loss.

They selflessly wanted their $100,000 bonuses before stepping on the plane -- something that in all likelihood contributed to the lack of focus that has led to them being laughed off the pitch.

Similarly, neighboring Nigeria was embroiled in an alleged match-fixing scam during an important pre-World Cup tuneup against Scotland, a game investigators red-flagged as one organized crime might have infiltrated.

Those accusations kicked up a notch when Austin Ejide appeared to throw the ball into his own goal midway through the first half that game.

This is a federation full of cry babies, selfishness and alleged cheats.

There are good elements, yes, but it's no wonder four of the five African sides at the World Cup look poised to have their tournaments end early -- proof a plethora of world-class players mean little when they're only playing for themselves.

After Toure, attention should turn to Alex Song, the experienced Cameroon midfielder who in a fit of rage punched Croatia's Mario Mandzukic in the back during Wednesday's match.

"The behaviour of some of my players is really not satisfactory … unacceptable," Finke said following an incident so egregious that nefarious thoughts began to creep into some pundits' heads.

Song's actions speak to the lack of discipline that has plagued CAF teams for decades.

Following Cameroon's quarterfinal run in 1990, prevailing thought was that an African side wasn't far from making a World Cup final. They've been a football factory since, shipping players to major leagues around the world to no avail.

Former Cameroon manager Otto Pfister understands what Finke, along with other CAF managers, might be going through. As he told Sports Illustrated, "one of the biggest problems (in Africa) is the fact most of the players are very narcissistic."

Individually, CAF boasts some of the world's top stars. But as a group, the crest doesn't matter.

It's what leads to a side like Cameroon completely capitulating post-game with on-field squabbles. After Song was selfishly sent off, it seemed the competition no longer mattered.

There were moments in Thursday's Ivory Coast loss that didn't make sense, either.

Players dribbling out the back while others elected to forgo the simplest, more appropriate passes. Then there's the Elephants' defence, which like Cameroon's Wednesday night was ripped to shreds. For that matter, Ghana's wasn't much better against the U.S. in a loss to the Yanks last week.

As for Nigeria, after its government banned the team from playing post-2010, it could only muster a listless draw against Iran in its World Cup opener.

Heck, Nigerian head coach Stephen Keshi doesn't even care to bring along his best players. Keshi admitted before the tournament that Toronto FC forward Bright Dike was on the verge of making his squad ahead of Obafemi Martins, who continues to perform out of this world for the Seattle Sounders.

Soccer in CAF is coordinated chaos -- something that is more or less reflected within the white lines.

It's moments of individual athleticism, mixed with bizarre decision-making and disorganization -- a manager's worst nightmare. Which is why the Cameroonian press insisting Finke should resign is puzzling when you consider how poorly his players have performed.

In saying that, though, one is attempting to make sense of a confederation where chaos prevails. Where players' egos trump nationalism while discipline is ignored -- even mocked.

In the media centre here Wednesday night, the Cameroon contingency -- some wearing official team gear -- seemingly joked about watching two of their players fight post-game.

The more you're around it, the more you realize CAF is a confederation that's rotten to its core.

kajifu wrote:Canada of all place.

kolinzo wrote:

kajifu wrote:Canada of all place.

Watch out for Canada. Coming soon, my friend.

AreaDaddy wrote:http://www.torontosun.com/2014/06/19/ca ... -world-cup

Ohsee is this your Newspaper? Do you guys not have quality control?

MANAUS, Brazil - Two weeks before the 2014 World Cup, Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure threatened to walk away from his club team, Manchester City. By failing to adequately celebrate his birthday, the Premier League title winners had treated him with "disrespect."

Nevermind the fact Toure makes in the vicinity of $350,000 per week, the way City treated him was "sickening," according to his Russian advisor, Dmitry Seluk. Speaking of sickening, welcome to the grossly convoluted Confederation of African Football (CAF), a group of teams that continues to disappoint every four years.

Following the Ivory Coast's 2-1 loss to Colombia on Thursday, CAF sides -- Nigeria, Algeria, Ghana and Cameroon -- are a combined 1-5-1, including an embarrassing performance from Cameroon here in the jungle Wednesday night. A 4-0 loss to Croatia at nearby Arena Amazonia led to Cameroon manager Vulker Finke calling his side's performance a disgrace.

More disgraceful, however, are many of the players themselves.

An infectious, me-first mentality goes beyond Toure's disgusting lack of self-awareness. Its disingenuous tentacles reach across multiple federations. Cameroon's 23-man squad, for instance, refused to board a plane to Brazil just four days ahead of their World Cup opener against Mexico, a 1-0 loss.

They selflessly wanted their $100,000 bonuses before stepping on the plane -- something that in all likelihood contributed to the lack of focus that has led to them being laughed off the pitch.

Similarly, neighboring Nigeria was embroiled in an alleged match-fixing scam during an important pre-World Cup tuneup against Scotland, a game investigators red-flagged as one organized crime might have infiltrated.

Those accusations kicked up a notch when Austin Ejide appeared to throw the ball into his own goal midway through the first half that game.

This is a federation full of cry babies, selfishness and alleged cheats.

There are good elements, yes, but it's no wonder four of the five African sides at the World Cup look poised to have their tournaments end early -- proof a plethora of world-class players mean little when they're only playing for themselves.

After Toure, attention should turn to Alex Song, the experienced Cameroon midfielder who in a fit of rage punched Croatia's Mario Mandzukic in the back during Wednesday's match.

"The behaviour of some of my players is really not satisfactory … unacceptable," Finke said following an incident so egregious that nefarious thoughts began to creep into some pundits' heads.

Song's actions speak to the lack of discipline that has plagued CAF teams for decades.

Following Cameroon's quarterfinal run in 1990, prevailing thought was that an African side wasn't far from making a World Cup final. They've been a football factory since, shipping players to major leagues around the world to no avail.

Former Cameroon manager Otto Pfister understands what Finke, along with other CAF managers, might be going through. As he told Sports Illustrated, "one of the biggest problems (in Africa) is the fact most of the players are very narcissistic."

Individually, CAF boasts some of the world's top stars. But as a group, the crest doesn't matter.

It's what leads to a side like Cameroon completely capitulating post-game with on-field squabbles. After Song was selfishly sent off, it seemed the competition no longer mattered.

There were moments in Thursday's Ivory Coast loss that didn't make sense, either.

Players dribbling out the back while others elected to forgo the simplest, more appropriate passes. Then there's the Elephants' defence, which like Cameroon's Wednesday night was ripped to shreds. For that matter, Ghana's wasn't much better against the U.S. in a loss to the Yanks last week.

As for Nigeria, after its government banned the team from playing post-2010, it could only muster a listless draw against Iran in its World Cup opener.

Heck, Nigerian head coach Stephen Keshi doesn't even care to bring along his best players. Keshi admitted before the tournament that Toronto FC forward Bright Dike was on the verge of making his squad ahead of Obafemi Martins, who continues to perform out of this world for the Seattle Sounders.

Soccer in CAF is coordinated chaos -- something that is more or less reflected within the white lines.

It's moments of individual athleticism, mixed with bizarre decision-making and disorganization -- a manager's worst nightmare. Which is why the Cameroonian press insisting Finke should resign is puzzling when you consider how poorly his players have performed.

In saying that, though, one is attempting to make sense of a confederation where chaos prevails. Where players' egos trump nationalism while discipline is ignored -- even mocked.

In the media centre here Wednesday night, the Cameroon contingency -- some wearing official team gear -- seemingly joked about watching two of their players fight post-game.

The more you're around it, the more you realize CAF is a confederation that's rotten to its core.

seloweizer wrote:While one could easily sieve out profound substance of truth from the write up, the writer loses my respect for his deliberate racist undertones and generalization/characterization of Africans. In this case, he euphemistically dresses up the entire Africa as "CAF" - armed with very desperate examples to buttress the racist point of view.

mcal wrote:...everything up there is true. If una disagree, then let's keep kidding ourselves.

wanaj0 wrote:
And not taking our better players like Martins, that must be funny.

Cellular wrote:

mcal wrote:...everything up there is true. If una disagree, then let's keep kidding ourselves.

Everything up there is true?


Wow! If so, then it says a lot about you than the writer.

mcal wrote:

Cellular wrote:

mcal wrote:...everything up there is true. If una disagree, then let's keep kidding ourselves.

Everything up there is true?


Wow! If so, then it says a lot about you than the writer.

...may have exaggerated but let us not kid ourselves about "bigmanism" in African football.

Ugbowo wrote:This "truth" is very bitter.

Too many generalizations though and an overall negative tone to the article. I agree with Yujam that it was written a little too early and I would have also preferred if he cited some local "CAF" sources as opposed to just Otto.