Football in Africa

Football, aka soccer, is huge here in Ghana. Well, to be honest, it’s huge in all of Africa. You know those amazingly fast, lean Kenyan marathoners who kind of look like they were raised by antelopes or cheetahs because there’s no other way they could be so fast and make it look so easy? Well those are just the castoffs from the football team, who figured they might as well take up another sport to pass the time. They’re the JV. So you can imagine, football is pretty huge.

This year has been a particularly exciting time to be a football fan in Ghana, because we’ve been playing like rockstars. The Black Stars (That’s the name of the national team. Check out Ghana’s flag on the left side of the screen. Ahh, now you see where the name comes from.) not only won the Under-20 Championships in October (insert crowd roaring), but also advanced to the finals of the 2010 African Cup of Nations (insert crowd going beserk). Unfortunately, we lost to Egypt, but still….(crowd sighs)…..Huge year for football!

I’m hoping this means Ghana will advance to the finals in the World Cup, and I can show off all my newly-learned knowledge about the players. But in the meantime, there is still lots of football to be watched! Some tidbits I’ve learned and talked about over the past 6 months:

-Most Ghanaians cheer for Chelsea when they watch European football on television. This is because Michael Essien plays for Chelsea, and he’s Ghanaian! He’s also on lots of billboards here in Accra selling everything from FanYogo frozen yogurt to fruit juice. Very popular guy, that Essien.

-The African Cup of Nations, held in Angola, just finished two days ago, but it had quite a dramatic course. The Togolese team came under gunfire as they boarded a bus in the 2nd week of the tournament, and three players were killed. Several others were injured. (check it out on the BBC here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8449319.stm) Understandably, the team withdrew from further competition. Or, I guess not so understandably. The Cup of Nations administration suspended Togo from entering the tournament for the next 2 years because forfeit is against the rules!
(http://blog.seattlepi.com/worldsoccer/archives/193046.asp?from=blog_last3)

What?! You would think that a murderous attack might make the “exception” list……TIA…..

-For all of you living under a rock recently, the 2010 World Cup will be held in South Africa. When I visited Johannesburg, I talked to anyone and everyone about the upcoming tournament and festivities. Surprisingly, the population was split: Black South Africans were overwhelmingly excited, while white South Africans were largely indifferent or even unexcited. Concerns ranged from the economic (“We won’t ever make up the deficit that building these stadiums is costing.”) to the social (“A tourist might get attacked and that will hurt our global reputation.”).

-The World Cup’s theme is “We will be one in 2010.” It’s posted on billboards all over Ghana, and I’ve heard lots of people comment that it will be nice to have such a widely accessible sport played on African soil for a global audience. So I was surprised when I read this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jan/12/world-cup-2010-south-africa-apathy
I guess the apathy stems from lots of things: no money to travel, no cultural support for the idea of a 'holiday,' and the fact that most people might prefer to watch the games on the local village TV with all their friends and family then in a foreign country. Still, it'd be nice to visibly see the continent's (supposed) support for the games.....Food for thought I guess....