Changing China

Should African coaches get more of a look in?

Halfway through their campaign at the Olympic Games, Nigeria coach Samson Siasia berated his players for a lack of discipline on the field and “ball-hogging”.

But perhaps a bit of African improvisation would not be such a bad thing.

Nigeria went on to reach the final of the tournament, beating old rivals the Ivory Coast and then thrashing Belgium 4-1 before coming unstuck against Argentina. Their semi-final performance against Belgium mixed moments of sublime skill with reckless defending and woeful, shoddy finishing. But the scoreline speaks for itself.

In the last few years, African players have emigrated en masse to Europe and their national teams have hired European coaches. A small group of these trainers now seem to have the main national sides sewn up, moving around in an endless game of musical coaches.

Four of the five African representatives at the last World Cup were coached by Europeans.

The European influence has certainly instilled discipline and professionalism. But the exuberance which African teams were expected to bring when Cameroon burst on to the scene in 1990 seems to have gone missing while results have been disappointing, with quarter-final places for Cameroon and Ivory Coast the best the continent could manage.

Under Siasia, Nigeria have returned to a more carefree and entertaining style, even if there have been some slapstick moments thrown in.