Qualification is not an end to itself for Cranes
What you need to know:
GOING FORWARD. Our football administration must now work to be seen as leadership providers and not just a bunch of elders who are power and money hungry
The qualification battle may have been won, but the Gabon 2017 war is far from over. There is still the small matter of playing the tournament proper and making it count, while we are at it.
As it is, out of the 16 teams that made it to Gabon 2017, only two lie outside North or West Africa. Only Uganda made it from East Africa, which is not surprising, seeing we are the highest ranked nation by Federation of International Football Associations (Fifa) in the region and also record winners of Coucil of East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa).
Continent apart
But why is it that our part of the continent risks being cut adrift when it comes to football? Why would nations celebrate if it were us they picked out of the pot when the draws for the finals proper, are made on October 19, 2016? Why is it that we have never been to the World Cup, and that the last time we were at Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), more than half of this nation was not even born?
Many would conveniently say it due to rotten luck and a Confederation of African Football (Caf) seeding system, that pits us against continental giants in each and every qualification campaign. Fair game to them!
For instance, even if we are now ranked a lofty 11th on the continent, we shall still come out of Pot 4, due to our long absence from the continental finals.
This means we could draw Algeria from Pot 1 and Tunisia from Pot 2 and another ‘lowly’ team, who could either be Cameroon or Morocco!
This may not endear us to the sensibility of these rankings. But that is the nature of the beast and we have to deal with it.
Besides, it is the consistency of these countries that sees them ranked above us. We must earn it, just like they had to.
So in my book, if we are to translate our regional dominance into a consistent presence at continental tournaments, we will have to start relying less on favourable draws and the alignment of stars and more on deliberate actions. And this will call for a change of mindset especially, how we prepare for these things.
Our choices are simple really. These are that our football administration must move on to a place where they are providing leadership on matters of coaching, friendlies, selections and compensation of players and staff alike.
It is the aggregate of these small incremental steps that we must turn into a force of habit and not just a hose with which to extinguish fires. This folks is what the nations of West and North Africa had to do to gain their reputations. It is what separates participants and contenders.
Then the luck can come and find us prepared. Then the collective intuition of our talents can start to count.
Then we could stop being the folks that are just happy to be on the invite list, and become those that steal the show. And beyond that, who knows? We could be allowed to dream about the World Cup.
