urstill1 wrote:Uram wrote:Full list of qualified countries
Equatorial Guinea Ghana Guinea S. Africa
Tunisia Senegal Algeria Mali
Burkina Faso Gabon Cameroon Ivory Coast
DR Congo Congo Zambia Cape Verde
Shocking; Nigeria and Egypt out
Disappointing that some countries we used to beat at will years ago qualified easily in their groups. I remember us beating Burkinabe home and away 4-3 and 4-2 respectively in '98 World Cup qualifiers and again 3-0 in 2004 Afcon. Cape Verde has improved vastly but I remember us beating them home and away in 2004 Afcon qualifiers. Who will save us?
I believe upto now, we can still beat the Burkinabes. Some of these countries have elephant political problems, e.g. Burkina Faso, DRC, IVC ... yet they qualify at will. So I will never blame the govt. I now believe football is 50-50 planning and talent. Cape Verde is a country with slightly over half a million people yet they got to quarters on their maiden AFCON last year. They have also qualified for 2015 tournament. They are building a culture, the Brazilian style. Is there a way of unseating Nyamweya? I'm 100% sure that he'll fight to retain his seat in the next elections.
Nyamweya is a large part of the problem. Unfortunately he will win again because he has succeeded in sidelining all dissenters like Sholei. And he has the support of the equally corrupt FIFA president.
But government is also a large part of the problem or solution. For one thing we need a competent sports minister with a vision. A sports minister who actually knows about sports, prefrably a former player or coach or official like Paul Ereng or Mike Boit. Federations can only do so much. The government can help clubs operate by giving them land, can establish youth development centres, can provide incentives for corporates to sponsor sports etc etc etc. All this can happen if the sports minister has a vision.
Also I believe that if govt went after Nyamweya for past corrupt deals, they could unseat him. His shenanigans are well known in football circles. If the govt investigated this chap, they could threaten him with prison time.