THE ongoing World Cup finals in Qatar, have so far seen Africa become of age to justify a significant number of more slots in the expanded set-up of 2026.

The next World Cup with 48 teams, up from 32, will be jointly hosted by Canada, Mexico and the US.

Africa with 54 eligible FIFA members has five slots at the ongoing tournament in Qatar. Europe with 55 eligible members has 13 slots.

We understand the apparent disproportionate representation  was based on the perceived level of technical and tactical ability of the different confederations.

Thus on the showing at the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia, it was very difficult to stand in the corner of Africa.

Out of their five finalists, none managed to go beyond the group stage.

However, at the ongoing finals, two African countries have already gone beyond the group stages to be placed in the last 16.

This is no easy task. Traditional giants like Germany, Denmark and Uruguay were not able to get beyond the group stages.

But the three African countries which could not escape the group stages, all gave a good account of themselves.  

Tunisia, third in their group standing, managed to beat reigning champions, France, along the way.

Not to be outdone, Cameroon, who also came out third, stunned the mighty Brazil, with a classic header to win their clash.

Ghana, who were on the verge of qualifying for round of 16,  panicked inexplicably in the final group game against Uruguay.

They lost a golden chance to exact revenge on a team that had denied them a semi-final berth through the hands of Luis Suarez.

Senegal, one of the two African giants to qualify for the last 16, were expected to knock out the Three Lions (England) when they met, but somehow hatched out a plan to disappoint.

However, the African flag is still flying very high with Morocco.

The coolness with which they approached the penalty shoot-out to eliminate former world champions, Spain, amply showed the maturity of the team.

Portugal is the next in line to be flayed by this African giant.

So, the performance of the CAF teams at this year’s edition of the World Cup has shown a remarkable level of improvement both at technical and tactical levels. 

With more funds African teams destined even to surpass European teams. If at the ongoing Qatar World Cup finals, Africa had four or five more slots, more CAF teams would have gone past the first hurdle.

Egypt, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Nigeria and Zambia are some of the continent’s giants which failed to qualify because of the limited number of slots reserved for CAF.

With Europe, we notice that all their traditional giants, with the exception of Italy managed to qualify.

This is because the number of slots gives a lot more teams a chance to qualify.

We have no doubt come 2026, with more slots reserved for Africa, Pele’s prediction of seeing one of the continent’s greats lifting the World Cup will be fulfilled.

And with this optimism, we also have Zimbabwe in mind.

But this can only be possible if the football authorities show matured leadership.

We implore FIFA to interfere less and give us a chance to put our house in order.

Even if that happens another major problem is the availability of suitable football pitches.

Those watching ongoing World Cup matches are seeing these in Qatar. 

We don’t have to go far as a few years back, we saw these across the border at the World Cup final in South Africa.

But how can we have this with a CCC controlled City Council, which politicised before rejecting a genuine offer by a benefactor to renovate Rufaro Stadium to international standards?