Fifa 'killing African football' says Ivory Coast coach Patrice Beaumelle

[delisyomie don]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/africa/59320203


Ivory Coast coach Patrice Beaumelle says world governing body Fifa is "killing African football" by only allowing the continent five places at the World Cup.

Beaumelle's Elephants can no longer reach the 2022 tournament in Qatar after losing 1-0 in Cameroon on Tuesday and finishing second in their group.

Africa's 54 participants in qualifying are whittled down to just five places at the 32-team tournament, while Europe has 13 guaranteed places from 55 competitors and South America four from 10.

"It is a shame because strong teams like mine will stay at home," Frenchman Beaumelle said.

"I have been in Africa since 2008 and I have participated in many World Cup qualifiers. I want to speak to Fifa because when you see that we have 54 federations and only five can go to a World Cup it is a disaster.

"I am not criticising other continents. But they (Fifa) are killing African football.

"It is a shame to have big players who are the pride of European championships and now they will not go to a World Cup."

However, the World Cup will be expanded to 48 teams from 2026, when the tournament will be held in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Like all the other continental confederations Africa will be given extra places at the expanded tournament.

Africa is expected to have nine guaranteed spots, while an inter-continental play-off tournament will decide the final two places.

Meanwhile, Fifa head of global development Arsene Wenger has proposed holding the World Cup every two years to boost participation.

African sides 'exhausted' by qualifying
Ivory Coast side to play Cameroon
An Ivory Coast side captained by Villarreal defender Serge Aurier and including Ajax striker Sebastien Haller was beaten 1-0 by Cameroon in Douala to exit World Cup qualifying
Ivory Coast competed in three consecutive World Cups from 2006 to 2014, but have now missed out on back-to-back tournaments.

South Africa, qualifiers in 1998 and 2002 and then hosts in 2010, are also set to be missing in Qatar.

Meanwhile, Cameroon and the other nine group winners will now face play-offs next March to decide Africa's five representatives.

"Cameroon qualified to the play-off, but it is not guaranteed [to go] to the World Cup," Beaumelle added.

"African teams are exhausted before they arrive at a World Cup because those qualifiers are exhausting us.

"Five countries from 54 is not even 9%. It is a shame. Even if my team had won I would still speak out about this situation."

Africa is still awaiting its first-ever semi-finalist at the World Cup, after Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) were all knocked out in the last eight.



na true he talk 13 to 14 slot for europe ,

[juventuss]

Very valid point raised here.

[deanotito]

Sounds like excusitis to me

[olumide]

African teams needed to do better at the World Cup, if they wanted more teams in the current format. At a usual World Cup, only 2 or 3 of the African teams would be competitive, and usually 1 would get out the group. Only time there was ever 2 was 2014. In 2018, none made it.

This is rectified with the new format for 2026, even if they've ruined the actual tournament with the silly 3 team groups.

[TonyTheTigerKiller]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/africa/59320203


Ivory Coast coach Patrice Beaumelle says world governing body Fifa is "killing African football" by only allowing the continent five places at the World Cup.

Beaumelle's Elephants can no longer reach the 2022 tournament in Qatar after losing 1-0 in Cameroon on Tuesday and finishing second in their group.

Africa's 54 participants in qualifying are whittled down to just five places at the 32-team tournament, while Europe has 13 guaranteed places from 55 competitors and South America four from 10.

"It is a shame because strong teams like mine will stay at home," Frenchman Beaumelle said.

"I have been in Africa since 2008 and I have participated in many World Cup qualifiers. I want to speak to Fifa because when you see that we have 54 federations and only five can go to a World Cup it is a disaster.

"I am not criticising other continents. But they (Fifa) are killing African football.

"It is a shame to have big players who are the pride of European championships and now they will not go to a World Cup."

However, the World Cup will be expanded to 48 teams from 2026, when the tournament will be held in Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Like all the other continental confederations Africa will be given extra places at the expanded tournament.

Africa is expected to have nine guaranteed spots, while an inter-continental play-off tournament will decide the final two places.

Meanwhile, Fifa head of global development Arsene Wenger has proposed holding the World Cup every two years to boost participation.

African sides 'exhausted' by qualifying
Ivory Coast side to play Cameroon
An Ivory Coast side captained by Villarreal defender Serge Aurier and including Ajax striker Sebastien Haller was beaten 1-0 by Cameroon in Douala to exit World Cup qualifying
Ivory Coast competed in three consecutive World Cups from 2006 to 2014, but have now missed out on back-to-back tournaments.

South Africa, qualifiers in 1998 and 2002 and then hosts in 2010, are also set to be missing in Qatar.

Meanwhile, Cameroon and the other nine group winners will now face play-offs next March to decide Africa's five representatives.

"Cameroon qualified to the play-off, but it is not guaranteed [to go] to the World Cup," Beaumelle added.

"African teams are exhausted before they arrive at a World Cup because those qualifiers are exhausting us.

"Five countries from 54 is not even 9%. It is a shame. Even if my team had won I would still speak out about this situation."

Africa is still awaiting its first-ever semi-finalist at the World Cup, after Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) were all knocked out in the last eight.



na true he talk 13 to 14 slot for europe ,

I agree completely. Besides Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Cape Verde, South Africa and even Benin are all extremely viable World Cup teams


Cheers.

[maceo4]

Hmm, but the argument would be that it's the same Africa that 0 out of 5 teams made it out the group stages of the last world cup? Where is our leverage to ask for more teams, or we just want a quota system regardless of performance?

[Cellular]

Still think other than expanding the tourney the next best solution is to give automatic births to the semi-finalists of the various Federation Tournaments...

Start by having the Federation Tournament qualification double as WCQ as well. Then those who qualify for their tournaments and don't make it to the Semi-finals now enter a general pool regardless of the federation to get the remaining teams.

It will still be done by seeding for the next and final round of qualification.

[Enugu II]

African teams needed to do better at the World Cup, if they wanted more teams in the current format. At a usual World Cup, only 2 or 3 of the African teams would be competitive, and usually 1 would get out the group. Only time there was ever 2 was 2014. In 2018, none made it.

This is rectified with the new format for 2026, even if they've ruined the actual tournament with the silly 3 team groups.

Olumide,

The problem with the point above is that it is an Eurocentric view that had migrated from Africa not having enough clubs to Africa not doing well at the WC.

Note that the World Cup is primarily a competition of representative teams and has nothing to do with who does well at the event or not. Do you think all European teams do well at the WC? Why would the likers of some small European team benefit from the sweat of Italy or France? The fact is that today a competent African team that is equivalent to an European team (that gets to the World Cup) cannot make it simply because it is competing in Africa and has a harder road to the WC that most teams in Europe have.

The reality is that this boils down to $$$ and the fight for those $$$. Unfortunately, until Africa/Asia understand fully this battle, they will always finish second in the political contests.

[wanaj0]

Maybe his team is NOT as good as he thinks.

Having BIG players is not same as having a GOOD team.

The challenge for Africa is to have a qualification format that allows the BEST teams to qualify.

Maybe including Semi finalists from the AFCON will help.

The BIG teams also need to get things done on the green grass. They need to take qualifications seriously.

Having Cameroon and CIV in same group guarantees that one of the BIG teams will not qualify,

[Eaglezbeak]

If CIV qualified would he had spoke out?

[Bigpokey24]

Very valid point raised here.

my point exactly. CAF should not be matching up the big guns.. Let the top teams get a chance.. it is simple get two groups

10 teams in each group, top 2 qualify and 3rd will get a playoff for the 5th spot( this way we get quality games , adn pathetic football we've been served by SE would ensure we put our house together.. it is time we took the games seriously)
Group A
Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, DRCongo, Morocco, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Gabon,Congo

Group B
Egypt, Algeria, CIV, Tunisia , Burkina, SA, Senegal,Zambia, Cape Verde,Uganda,

however CAF has 9 spots and a playoff from 2026 WC. I wonder how this will be implemented

every game will be mouth watery and CAF would make huge mulla as far as TV rights. ESPN has the rights to the qualifiers in AFRICA today

[Bigpokey24]

If CIV qualified would he had spoke out?

that isn't the point, last time we had Cameroon, Nigeria, Zambia and Algeria all in the same worldcup qualifying group. of course CAF teams weren't going to do well at the mundial.

[Robbynice]

If CIV qualified would he had spoke out?

He said he would have. Did you even read the news article?

[Eaglezbeak]

If CIV qualified would he had spoke out?

He said he would have. Did you even read the news article?

He said he would’ve but we would never know would we?

[Orion]

We're not exactly performing well at the world cup though. CIV is one of those teams that look good on paper but there isn't much flow to their play. Just a bunch of individual talents. They certainly should be in the top 10 but I wouldn't put them in the top 5 teams in Africa right now.

BTW, FIFA is already doing a lot to help the top teams. Apart from seeding them so they don't meet each other, notice that all the seeded teams had the second game against their closest rival in the group at home. This gives them a chance to correct any slipups early in the contest. Cameroon took advantage of that.

[kalani JR]

Still think other than expanding the tourney the next best solution is to give automatic births to the semi-finalists of the various Federation Tournaments...

Start by having the Federation Tournament qualification double as WCQ as well. Then those who qualify for their tournaments and don't make it to the Semi-finals now enter a general pool regardless of the federation to get the remaining teams.

It will still be done by seeding for the next and final round of qualification.

If CAF wants their tournament to double as qualification I'm sure they can arrange that.

Also the World Cup loses out on nothing by not having CIV, one of the most consistent underperfomers.

[EMIR KONGI JAFFI JOFFA]

The guy played beautiful football and lost.

[Celebrity]

The guy played beautiful football and lost.

[Cmoke]

Oga, stop adopting colomental arguments.

Give Africa 13 spots and Europe 5 spots and see if "African teams do better at World Cup!"

Cmoke

African teams needed to do better at the World Cup, if they wanted more teams in the current format. At a usual World Cup, only 2 or 3 of the African teams would be competitive, and usually 1 would get out the group. Only time there was ever 2 was 2014. In 2018, none made it.

This is rectified with the new format for 2026, even if they've ruined the actual tournament with the silly 3 team groups.

[Enugu II]

We're not exactly performing well at the world cup though. CIV is one of those teams that look good on paper but there isn't much flow to their play. Just a bunch of individual talents. They certainly should be in the top 10 but I wouldn't put them in the top 5 teams in Africa right now.

BTW, FIFA is already doing a lot to help the top teams. Apart from seeding them so they don't meet each other, notice that all the seeded teams had the second game against their closest rival in the group at home. This gives them a chance to correct any slipups early in the contest. Cameroon took advantage of that.

Why should that matter I ask? How many of the 13 teams in Europe at the WC will perform better than the African teams? If they deserve their places so do the African teams. You simply should not assume that the 13 Euro reps are on the level of England let alone France and Belgium.