CAN Championships gives false hopes to African Teams, Joseph Antoinne Bell
"Africans are deceived by the CAN", Antoine Bell explains why Africa always fails at the World Cup
Despite having talented players and teams, Africa always struggles to perform at the World Cup. The best performances so far is to be credited to Senegal, Cameroon and Ghana, who played a quarter-finals of the World Cup.
But what is wrong with allowing Africans to pass a stage and reach at least the semi-finals? The question was asked to the Cameroonian legend, Joseph Antoine Bell.
According to the former Goalkeeper, it is the African Cup of Nations which misleads the African teams. “You have to know that the results of a team depends on preparation. It all depends on the preparation. But, until Africans understand that they are being mislead by the CAN, they will not move forward. Why ? Simply because the CAN follows the World Cup. When we fail at the World Cup, we are unhappy, we are not happy. But the following year, we play CAN. As we meet the same teams who have the same flaws as us, the same weaknesses, and since we need a winner, we will therefore say that we are in remission, that we have evolved. This is wrong because at the World Cup the adversaries are completely different, " he says.
To succeed at the highest level, you have to be much more organized. We will not only win with our players. A team is all that has around. Politics, etc., all of this matters in the design and development, even if the players are the ones who are visible," he adds.
The question is, what then should CAN or African teams do to change the narrative? These teams must partake in FIFA'S World Cups every four years, as it is with other nations and football blocks of the world. The other factor Antoinne forgot to put into account is that, majority of African footballers are plying their trades in Europe, where the real football action is taking place. So where is the misdirection or the misleading? You can answer these questions for yourselves.
NB. This content was first published at Hive https://esteem.app/sports/@izge/can-championships-gives-false-hope-to-african-teams-antoinne-bell