Poignant sight of the wreckage showing the cockpit of the plane carrying the Zambian football team that perished when the plane crashed, killing all on board. The biggest loss for Zambian football, perhaps, was the death in the crash of the coach, Godfrey Chitalu.
Might just have an over-active imagination to look at it the way I do but, cannot help myself. They say healthy paranoia is a reflection the realisation has dawned that things are more connected than one previously thought.
This is my issue.
African players do exceptionally well in well known European and far eastern football teams. They have produced some of the best players leagues here have known, for instance Didier Drogba, etc., yet ... come the world cup, the continent doesn't fare well at all.
When I look at this in depth, and I have taken this issue apart several times before, CSI Miami style, I can but make one conclusion: foul play. Foul play not in the form of corruption, or defiling by biological agents which might get obvious, but in the form of weaponry firing invisible bullets that don't just injure, but can cause confusion, without leaving signs they were used, weaponry in the hands of a group keen on ensuring a kind of people win because they do not want some facts about this continent to become clear ... and here I speak of them using the kind of silent weapons used in the Cuba/Uzbekistan/China USA Embassy attacks to achieve this.
I know what you will say to this. You will ask why they do not do the same to Brazil if the motivation is racism?
I think they do not touch Brazil and some other South American teams "as much" because of two things:
1) Mentality: South Americans are too open to issues globally. They are also more open with their feelings. They will discuss issues Africans would rather consider better to keep to their own selves. This has to do with cultural sensibilities, the kind that make Africans easy targets of covert attacks. South American society is also more advanced than African society. People in South America have as a result broader imaginations on average than Africans. Players here will definitely notice as well as talk when things do not seem right. Somebody will eventually put two and two together and point out an external influence.
2) The performance on the international stage of South American countries pre-dates the advent of the tech that can cause athletic under performance. Also, where quality has already been ascertained, questions will be asked if things change for the worst.
FYI I do not subscribe to the idea the fault is because Africa is allowed to send too few teams to the world cup either. This is a sign of bias of course, but exceptional ability should shine through no matter how few the numbers of exceptional teams in the groups. South Americans do well whether they have two or just one team past the group stage.
I also do not subscribe to the other rationale circulating around that says Africans are not very ambitious? They will be happy with a position among the top teams? Problem with this is the desire to win is universal. people will always do their best in tournaments. A good number of African players lead their teams from major league to premier league victory in European and far eastern countries, scoring the goals that clinch the victories. What more proof do we need that Africans do not go to tournaments with the mindset of being satisfied with a group stage success?
Let's consider a factor that always gets me to the point I cannot help seeing foul play using exotic weapons ...
Africa's juniors or under twenties do way better than the senior teams, and consistently at that. They are a force to be reckoned with. Ghana won the FIFA U-20 world cup in 2009 and have managed to be third since. Africa U-20s have emphatically defeated the big names in football, repeatedly, so why the under performance of the grown lads?
Could it be that African men become redundant after 20? But what about blacks in America? In the NBC? Some get better as they grow older. Hmmm.
Is it what we eat in Africa that has not yet affected the younger people because they have not chewed on too much of it yet? But players like Didier and many others, raised on African food, played well into their mid thirties. Hmmm.
Whatever it is, the under performance seems to only hit right before the games, apparently, because our teams do very well in friendlies with major footballing nations before major matches. The Zambian team that perished by plane crash in 1993 defeated major teams by margins that were shocking. They defeated Italy by 4-0 then repeated this score line with Guatemala, a South American team that is not a walkover. Come the actual championship this record was hardly expressed ... Hmmm ...
If I was coaching African players, I would have them sleeping in faraday cages surrounded by rubber walls ... seriously. I remember thinking this after I had done the math, when I remembered a bizarre injury on the field in Europe. Cisse, the current Senegal coach, broke his leg some time back in a manner that had me thinking the point at which it broke had been receiving invisible bullet bombardment as he slept. Cisse's leg broke as he ran, without a rough tackle on him. How strange is that?
Or maybe I am just too paranoid? Lol.
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