African Football

Africa shares the rest of the world's passion for the “beautiful game” – which brings hope, inspiration and unity to millions. It is the most widely played and followed sport in Africa.

A passion for the game

From Cape to Cairo, the excitement and celebration that accompanies major football games is legendary.

During the oppressive years of apartheid in South Africa, football humanised the lives of people who had little else to cheer about. It fostered friendships and camaraderie among team member and fans, transcending the enforced divisions of the time. Football – as with other sports – was a key arena for the struggle to end apartheid.

As elsewhere, in Africa, the victory of a national soccer team is a victory for a country as a whole. When Senegal reached the quarter finals of the 2002 FIFA World CupTM, skipper Aliou Cisse reflected: “During the World Cup there were no more religious or ethnic problems, everyone was pulling in the same direction.”

Football ambassadors

Football and the football icons of Africa are helping to put the continent's development issues on the international agenda.

Ghana's Abedi “Pele” Ayew, for example, acts as an ambassador for Africa and lobbied at the G8 summit in Scotland on behalf of the continent – explaining the need for the G8 countries to press ahead with debt relief in Africa. Another African soccer legend, Cameroon's Roger Milla, is an itinerant ambassador for his country and for UNAIDS.

Football is a source of Africa's pride as a continent. Other than Ayew, Africa’s famous “exports” to the rest of the world's football clubs include Moustapha Hadji of Morocco, the Liberian icon George Weah, Roger Milla from Cameroon, Philemon Masinga, Mark Fish and Lucas Radebe of South Africa – to name only a few.

Challenging the world

The game in Africa is increasingly competitive. African teams have participated in the World Cup since 1934, with the continent represented in 11 of the 18 World Cup tournaments to date.

The days are over when African teams at the World Cup were generally held in low esteem. With Cameroon's victory over Argentina in the opening match of the World Cup in 1990, and the team's subsequent place in the quarter finals, a new era for African soccer began. Despite its early elimination in 2002, Cameroon remains in the top 20 on the FIFA/Coca Cola World Rankings, along with Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

One of the highlights for the continent at the FIFA World Cup 2006 – which had Ivory Coast, Ghana, Angola, Tunisia and Togo as participants – was Ghana reaching the knockout stages.

The Confederation of African Football

The 53-member Confederation of African Football (CAF) runs international football in Africa; the country-level football associations organise and develop the sport nationally. CAF, which was founded in 1957, received a guaranteed berth in the World Cup for the first time in 1970.

The continent’s major football tournaments are the African Cup of Nations, the CAF Confederation Cup and the African Champions League, all of which are organised by CAF. The CAF also annually presents the African Footballer of the Year award.

Africa's time has come!

Given the emotion and passion of Africa's relationship with football, it was no surprise that there were celebrations across the continent FIFA announced that South Africa would host the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The World Cup is a chance for the continent, as none before it, to welcome the world into Africa and to take Africa into the world.

See the CAF website for more about football in Africa, or SAFA’s website for information on the game in South Africa.