Study: African Nations’ World Cup Prospects Analyzed, Morocco Among Top Contenders

To date, no African team has been able to qualify for the World Cup semi-finals. The President of the African Football Confederation, Patrice Motsepe, King Pelé, former Nigerian star Jay Jay Okocha or Ghanaian legend Abedi Pelé express the wish to see an African football team win a World Cup. Researchers from Harvard University have conducted a study on the possibility of African nations winning a World Cup. According to them, the best African football nations are Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. A ranking based on the performance of each team.

The researchers analyzed the performance indices of African teams, as well as the competition index of the best World Cup nations. As competitors for the trophy, the performance indices of African countries were between 23 and 56 from 1970 to 1979, before rising between 39 and 62 for the 2010-2019 period, the study says. As for the competition index of the best World Cup nations, it was between 57 and 79 for the 1970, 1979 period, between 67 and 90 for the 2010-2019 period. Deduction: in terms of competition to win the World Cup, African teams have progressed, but the best nations in the world even more.

"Some observers might interpret the improvements recorded over the past decades to declare that countries like Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria are on track to win the trophy between 2030 and 2040. However, this argument is implausible when one observes the limits of the implicit strategy on which African countries seem to be relying to improve their situation: the domination of intra-continental opponents and victory in regional tournaments. This strategy will not be enough if these countries want to rise to the top of the hierarchy," notes the study.

Other important factors on which country leaders can act to hope that an African nation will win the trophy: infrastructure, financial resources, and training required to train professional footballers.