Portal:Football in Africa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Introduction

Cameroon's Benoît Assou-Ekotto jostles for possession with Mustapha Allaoui of Morocco

Football is the most popular sport in Africa. Indeed, football is probably the most popular sport in every African country, although rugby and cricket are also very popular in South Africa. (Full article...)

Football was first introduced to Africa in the early 1860s by Europeans,[1] due to the colonisation of Africa. The first recorded games were played in South Africa in 1862 between soldiers and civil servants and there were no established rules for the game at this time;[2]" Initially, there were various forms of playing the game, which included elements of both rugby and soccer. It was not until October 26, 1863 that the "rules of association football were codified."[2] The first official football organization in Africa, Pietermaritzburg County Football Association, was established in 1880.Teams were being established in South Africa before 1900, Egypt and in Algeria during a similar time period. Savages FC (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa), and Gezira SC are the oldest African football clubs that remain in existence. Both began play in 1882 followed by Alexandria SC (1890), CDJ Oran from Algeria in 1894 and CAL Oran from Algeria too in 1897. By the 1930s, football was being played in Central Africa. In 1882, the first national governing body on the content was formed, South African Football Association (SAFA). SAFA was a whites-only association that became the first member of FIFA in South Africa in 1910.[2]
Egyptian Olympic football team, 1928
As Africa is a highly superstitious continent many African teams depend on witch doctors for success.[3][4][5][6][7] Activities that witch doctors have performed for teams include cutting players, placing potions on equipment, and sacrificing animals.[8]
The Cameroon national football team in 2009
The Cameroon national football team (French: Équipe du Cameroun de football), also known as the Indomitable Lions (French: les lions indomptables), represents Cameroon in men's international football. It is controlled by the Fédération Camerounaise de Football, a member of FIFA and its African confederation CAF.

The team has qualified for the FIFA World Cup eight times, more than any other African team, and four times in a row between 1990 and 2002. However, the team has only made it out of the group stage once. They were the first African team to reach the quarter-final of the World Cup in 1990, losing to England in extra time. They have also won five Africa Cup of Nations.

Cameroon is the first and, as of 2022, only African country to defeat Brazil in tournament play, beating them in the 2003 Confederations Cup and 2022 FIFA World Cup by identical 1-0 scores.

Selected biography - show another

Kalusha Bwalya is a former Zambian footballer, coach and current president of the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ). He is Zambia's most capped player, second all-time top goalscorer behind Godfrey Chitalu, and is regarded as the greatest Zambian footballer of all time. He was named African Footballer of the Year in 1988 by the magazine France Football and was nominated for the 1996 FIFA World Player of the Year where he was voted the 12th-best player in the world, the first to be nominated after playing the entire year for a non-European club.

Bwalya's older brother Benjamin also played professional football, while his younger brother Joel also played for the Zambia national football team. His cousin is former Cardiff City and Welsh national team striker Robert Earnshaw.

Selected image - show another

South African fans on the streets of Johannesburg before the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup
South African fans on the streets of Johannesburg before the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup
Credit: ABr
Fans of the South Africa national team celebrate with vuvuzelas on the streets of Johannesburg as they await the beginning of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The vuvuzela is a plastic horn which produces a loud monotone note, and has been the subject of controversy when used by spectators at football matches.

Subcategories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

Related portals

More sports portals

WikiProjects

Topics

Open tasks

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

More portals

Sources

  1. ^ "The History Of Soccer In Africa". NPR.org. 2010-06-09. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  2. ^ a b c Alegi, Peter (2010). African Soccerscapes. Ohio University Press. pp. 1–2. ISBN 9780896802780.
  3. ^ Frimpong, Enoch Darfah. "Ghana news: A world of superstition, frustration and disillusionment - Graphic Online". Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  4. ^ Lacey, Marc (8 August 2002). "Kangemi Journal; For Spellbinding Soccer, the Juju Man's on the Ball". The New York Times. NY Times. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  5. ^ "World Cup Witchcraft: Africa Teams Turn to Magic for Aid". National Geographic. Archived from the original on July 10, 2006. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  6. ^ Andy Mitten (September 2010). The Rough Guide to Cult Football. Rough Guides UK. ISBN 9781405387965. Retrieved 2016-04-02.
  7. ^ "African Nations Cup overshadowed by hocus pocus | Football". The Guardian. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  8. ^ Kuper, Simon (2006). Soccer Against the Enemy: How the World's Most Popular Sport Starts and Stops Wars, Fuels Revolutions, and Keeps Dictators in Power. Nation Books. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-56025-878-0.