Finances don’t guarantee our readiness for Afcon 2019

What you need to know:

Ugly Truth. Rich federations, competitive domestic leagues across the continent and playing at the highest level set up the first reality that while noted now dictates where form will reside in July 2019.

Last week, it was announced that in appreciation of the struggles the poorer federations go through to deliver their teams at a tournament, all participating nations at Afcon 2019 will receive an advance of $260,000 (Shs1b) which will eventually get netted off appearance and prize monies ranging from $475,000 (Shs1.7b) to $4.5m (Shs17b).
It’s the kind of purse that regularly sets off pay-riots in especially broke football federations. But instead it is envisioned that the competitive field will now be relatively level and no nation will arrive in Egypt already beaten by the moods of ill preparation.

But this is a bit of a contradiction. To start, it would be problematic to elect participants deserving of affirmative action and so Caf conveniently sends out this advance to all participants, the ready and not-so-ready.
The Caf millions in a way end up restoring the status-quo and reaffirming that the difference in readiness between those who do well and those who don’t, doesn’t occur in the eight weeks before the tournament, but years before.
Rich federations, competitive domestic leagues and playing at the highest level set up the first reality that while noted now dictates where form will reside in July 2019.

Take our Group A for example. Mo Salah could be arriving in Egypt with a Uefa Champions League medal while DR Congo’s TP Mazembe contingent could show up with Caf Champions league medals.
And Zimbabwe has easily been the form team of this group all year. That is where the difference shall be; that the winners will not need an advance payment, but will use their cumulative experience and exposure, to make their case.
Small wonder then that any win outside the so-called North and West African giants is always going to be an upset. Those nations dominate the nation cup because their preps started not after the arrival of the advance, but ages ago in their big football development budgets, under age teams, their vibrant domestic leagues and the contagious education their stars catch in the world’s best leagues.

Local league revival
Their national teams represent a coming together of all those forces. It’s hard to beat that. It is the way the cookie crumbles, and it’s no coincidence our resurgence on the continent has coincided with the relative revival of the local league and the increased export of talent to professional leagues.
Yet it’s a tough needle to thread, highlighting everything except finances.
Doesn’t make the Caf advance irrelevant. Far from. It is a tidy sum that supplements other fundraising efforts.
Lest we forget there have been times when it wasn’t the finals that we were ill prepared for but the qualification phase itself.

The Afcon 2017 qualifiers come to mind. We made it to Gabon but just. It took the intervention of government to raise Shs1.8b needed to navigate that three-day double header against Burkina Faso.
The rest is history.
But so, will our latest efforts be, if we think finances alone will cover up for our technical and operational inefficiencies.

Huge Sums. Fufa publicist Ahmed Hussein confirmed to Score the $260,000 (Shs973m) reported to have been handed to every of the 24 qualified national associations by Caf.

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MBanturaki