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First.

Interesting read. Intriguing to see that African countries (especially in the South) really don't seem to like backing home grown managers.

Good Blog

No country has won the World Cup with an expatriate coach? Damn.

Some simple facts.

African teams choose who they believe to be the best candidate. This will usually be an individual who has experience of managing at the very top level of Elite football. Unfortunately for African Coaches, that level of competition exists primarlity in Europe.

Therefore they will go with the best European experienced coach they can acquire. They did not always attract a high calibre of coach in the past from Europe. But I believe more managers are willing to take on such a job now having seen the wonders it has done for Guus Hiddink with SK, and the likes of Metsu within Africa.

The standard of Afican International football ahs also improved durastically in the last 20 years, with more and more migration of players into the european leagues. Particularly in the 1990's in France and Belgium.

With most top starts playing in European leagues, they need to eb managed by somebody who has coached at their level of football. Until African coaches make their mark on European teams...this will not happen.

Perhaps we will see this generation of players become successful managers in the future?

The likes of Geroge Weah and Adebi Pele could easily have found managerial jobs in Europe but chose not to, why may this be?

African Administrators particularly the ones in Nigeria, destroy the confidence of the local coaches and maladministrate for their own selfish agenda. The public and heads of state have to force the foreign choice option to get better results. However it has not worked effectively to develop the game and local competence. The local leagues have to develop with discipline and consistency to allow managerial expertise and competence to develop. Egypt is a perfect example of this.

It's a sad indictment on football in general, after all we're (England) led by an Italian and not long before that, a Swede.

If only to make it a true nations tournament, would it not be better for the sport to impose a world cup rule that has the same criteria for management and all staff as for the players, ie. you must be a citizen of that country, or at the very least, have not had a similar role with another nation.

Who cares what nationality the coach is?

Bora Milutinovic has done some great work with what would be considered 'minor' countries in the world, and I am sure Russia is thankful for Guus Hiddink's work in getting them to the Euro 2008 semi finals, their best performance since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Hiddink also did fine work with Australia and South Korea.

It's not purely an 'African thing' and I find this blog slightly patronising to be honest. Why do European commentators feel they need to adopt this paternalistic, liberal and charitable tone when talking about Africa? The African associations can employ whoever they want to coach their national teams. England did exactly the same when they appointed Eriksson and Capello. The England cricket team was very happy to employ Duncan Fletcher (Zimbabwean) as coach and Troy Cooley (Australian) as a bowling coach in the 2005 Ashes win and no one talks about their nationalities.

So why does Africa have a problem? Where are the successful english coaches then? Why didn't Stuart Pearce or Peter Taylor get the England job? Would people have McClaren back as England manager after the work he has done with Twente? Why is this purely an African 'problem'- has anyone written a blog about the lack of success of English coaches lately?

Nice blog.

Not that the nationality of coach shoud matter but the biggest problem for home grown coaches in many african countries is always team selection. Plus, a competition like world cup for Africans, who have only have 5 places despite being over 50 nations, is a competition against the western teams, and having a foreigh coach is sure-way to be able to compete. Numbers do not lie, that is why the best African success has been achieved with a foreign coach.

It's a bit like English Football in the Top flight too. Their is a huge void in talent in English Football from a coaching perspective. Old 'Arry at Spurs seems to be the only fella worth his salt. Over past few years whenever a new England coach has been spoken about the two common names are Allardyce and Pierce. That would be scary for English National Team.

You are right though the majority of the African Federations pay foreign coaches huge sums of cash to coach and very little succeed. Better off investing in facilities. South Africa for example is always associated with Rugby however, Soccer is played by more people that Rugby in South AFrica, yest when you compare facilities and even pitches at the top level the gap is astonishing.

Great blog Piers. This is a worthy contribution to the debate on football administration on the continent. I'm less bothered about the composition of coaches as compared to the financial drain on African budgets. Football is a bloody waste of tax payers money in Africa.

Take Nigeria as a point in case. Lägerbeck will earn 1.8m USD for 20 weeks' work. That sum is equivalent to what he earned over a decade coaching the Swedish team. Such waste of money when there are pressing needs on the continent.

SA has wasted billions building stadiums across the country whereas that money would have better served improving living conditions in slums across the country. Why Africa buys into this crazy culture remains baffling. Elsewhere, adverstising revenue sustains football, not in Africa.

African football is all about corruption and extorting from the masses. It is high time governments stop wasting scarce resources on football and sports in general. They should allow the sponsorship and funding of sports to businesses and the private sector.

No sane business man, whose earned his money legitimately, will pay Lägerbeck and others of his caliber such ridiculous sums for a bit part summer job. I would rather have an African coach earn a fraction of that sum. Amodu is being owed by the NFF as are Berti Vogts before him and Christian Chukwu. The list is endless.

Trot Moloto is right in his analysis, African administrators and football fans suffer unimaginable complexies. They just feel a coach from Europe is better whereas these are often third rate coaches. So much folly from a continent that resisted colonialism.

that is a really good blog. Im from africa and i personally wish we'd give our local coaches the opportunity to prove themselves, who knows we might have the next sir alex in our own backyard.

I hope that what you said (Sadaane being the only African manager in this coming world cup) is true. There has been rumors for a while now, especially after the 3-0 defeat to Serbia at home last month, that Sadaane is to be sacked and replaced by a world-class manager (i.e. a foreigner). Or if he does not get sacked, they are trying to get him an assistant (most likely a foreigner) to be his No. 2. Sadaane made it clear that if he is forced to get another assistant chosen by the Algerian Football Federation he will quit.
So, what I am trying to say is that from now to the world cup Sadaane might not be the coach of the Algerian National team, which will be unfair as he was the one who guided the team to the world cup and therefore he should manage the team in that tournament.

#6

I think the point being made is that with Africa, the lack of homegrown coaches is more of a continental, rather than national issue. Yes, England don't have any top coaches at the moment, but the majority of European nations can pick from a pool of homegrown bosses.

I agree with #3. There are so many African players now throughout Europe and they will be gaining enough experience of top level football to put that to use as coaches. I think will see an increase in the no. of African coaches in the next 20 years.

No country has won the World Cup with an expatriate coach? capello your country expects!!!!

Interesting read indeed. Think of it, winning the World Cup is more of a passion than a job really. That's why the results always favor a local coach. Yes, the expat (import, or whatever) may bring in the experience, but maybe during qualification which usually spans 10 games in 24 months. But the World Cup winner needs 7 games in 1 month. That's where the crunch comes in. PASSION

Piers
I've always tried to be as honest as i possibly can on your Blog, but now I give up!! In all the cases I've posted, I'm awaiting moderation. You know why? You guys are too stringent.

Ever wondered why other blogs get like 200, 300 posts? when you can muster 15 (including this one) almost 12 hours after posting?

I remember Zimbabwean coach Sunday Marimo complaining about just this issue in the early 90s... basically he and other coaches were complaining about how the local coaches would go to Europe and get the same coaches that the European coaches got but the local footballing authorities would still ignore them. (He was finally made Zim national coach in 2004 and, a couple of stints later, currently occupies that post.)

Now it's fine if the non-African coach has a global rep already, like Bora Milutinovic or Guus Hiddink. But it's only recently that African footballing confederations have had enough money to hire coaches like that. For decades the foreign coaches hired had little coaching experience, even at club level.

For example, with the Cameroon team at Italia 90, Valeri Nepomniachi had only one season of coaching Stroitel Ashgabat (a lower division Soviet club, probably in Turkmenistan) before he was given the job of coaching the Cameroon national team. It was reported (possibly true, possibly not) that since he didnt speak English or French, all communication with his players was through a translator (who didnt know much about football) and that the players would get together before the game to discuss tactics by themselves.

If it hadn't been for Roger Milla - who was only put in because some politician ordered it - how far would Cameroon have got in Italia 90? Has everyone forgotten that they got thrashed 4-0 by the USSR in their final group game?

African countries should either hire top world class coaches or use their own coaches. Or hire coaches from other African countries. The North African teams are a lot better about trusting their locals to coach.

Having said that, it's hard to say what's wrong with the Nigerian authorities appointing Lagerback - the bloke at least has nine years coaching Sweden and took them to two World Cups. Cameroon have Paul le Guen, who coached four top division French & Scottish teams for 18 years and is probably a better coach than the current French national coach. (Then again, who isn't?) There is also no way one can complain about the coaching credentials of South Africa's coach Carlos Perreira.

But Ghana's coach Milovan Rajevac - um. Big question mark there - he's coached four top division Serbian clubs, including Red Star Belgrade, but he hasn't lasted too long at any of them.

I was surprised Stephen Keshi didnt get a mention in this article, seeing as the Nigerian coached Togo (getting booted out for a foreign coach once he took them to the 2006 World Cup) and Mali (who fired him when they got kicked out of the African Cup of nations owing to arcane group tie-breaking rules).

Hassan Shehata's been coaching Egypt since 2004, which is pretty long. Pity Zambia drew with Egypt in Cairo, eh?

Good blog as ever Piers.

Its hard to know whats best for African football. Its surely beneficial to have some of the best managers managing their teams. But are these foreigners always the best for the job? For example: Lars Lagerbeck failed to qualify with Sweden and as a reward he gets a top African team! It doesnt make sense. HE FAILED! The same as Brian Laws getting the Burnley job after FAILING with Wednesday. It seems too many people oppointing managers are more interested in experience rather than SUCCESS!!!

Lets wait and see whether these 'shrewd' appointments will pay off for the African nations.

The reason why black Africa does not have more black men in charge of national teams is because hardly any hold legitimate coaching qualifications.

In Nigeria, for example, only Siasia and Keshi have completed internationally-recognised training courses and obtained a coaching Pro Licence, while Eguavoen is doing so. But Amodu keeps being recycled as national coach in spite of lacking the qualifications he would need to be allowed to coach any club in Europe, Asia or the Americas.

Amodu's ignorance of coaching knowledge showed itself on many levels. His Nigeria played a rigid 4-3-3, but with three defensive midfielders and with his full-backs forbidden to attack. He designed Nigeria's World Cup preparation with a pre-tournament camp in London and a tournament one in Durban: he clearly does not have any grasp of the effects of high altitude.

The only black African coach with the credentials to lead Nigeria at the World Cup was Jean Tigana, yet the NFF refused even to shortlist him for fear of having to deal with a black man who would dare to answer back.

Even the New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert went to Europe to obtain a UEFA Pro Licence. No major African country should consider appointing a coach of any colour unless he has a full Pro Licence.

Sometimes it is better to have a foreign coach than a local one, especially if the local one is some kind of a local hero. Look at Argentina - they have attackers like Higuain, Tevez, Aguero, Messi, Milito, Cruz etc. Their headache is 'who should we leave out?' England, on the other hand is seriously debating Crouch, Zamora, Carton Cole, DeFoe, Heskey.. Compare these to the Argetina names! Yet many commentators believe that England will do better than Argentina come SA 2010.. All because the Argentines want to have their popular local manager.

Good blog and good topic. The real problem is that the local administrators of the game are people of dubious character. The administrators find it easier to manipulate foreign coaches to achieve often dubious ends. Not infrequently the administrators inflate the foreign coaches terms and conditions, something the locals cannot accept. The administrators are frequently on a mission to use football as a stepping stone to political office. They lack professionalism and as in the mentioned case of Nigeria even a low ranking referee can become a coach. In Kenya we had a German character with the unlikely name of Hey. Hey would only meet the national team at the away venues where they frequently lost. He would then first go to Germany and it is only when the critism and analysis had cooled he would then show his face. It is well known that in the recent past Kenya has done better under local coaches (Mulei and Kimanzi). The downward plunge in the FIFA ranking is proof of this phenomenon.

@18 the so called qualification are not the end all of coaching. I hope you have heard of 'the Kaiser' who despite not having your so highly valued papers is to date the only man to have captained and coached a world cup winning team. Maradona is trying to emulate this feat, and the last time I checked he had not attempted to attain acquire the papers. So that line of reasoning may not be entirely correct.

2. At 4:29pm on 26 Mar 2010, Imagine Reason wrote:

No country has won the World Cup with an expatriate coach? Damn.

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Its never occurred to me either. Nice one Piers!

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6. At 6:40pm on 26 Mar 2010, Subterranean wrote:

Who cares what nationality the coach is?

Bora Milutinovic has done some great work with what would be considered 'minor' countries in the world, and I am sure Russia is thankful for Guus Hiddink's work in getting them to the Euro 2008 semi finals, their best performance since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Hiddink also did fine work with Australia and South Korea.

It's not purely an 'African thing' and I find this blog slightly patronising to be honest. Why do European commentators feel they need to adopt this paternalistic, liberal and charitable tone when talking about Africa? The African associations can employ whoever they want to coach their national teams. England did exactly the same when they appointed Eriksson and Capello. The England cricket team was very happy to employ Duncan Fletcher (Zimbabwean) as coach and Troy Cooley (Australian) as a bowling coach in the 2005 Ashes win and no one talks about their nationalities.

So why does Africa have a problem? Where are the successful english coaches then? Why didn't Stuart Pearce or Peter Taylor get the England job? Would people have McClaren back as England manager after the work he has done with Twente? Why is this purely an African 'problem'- has anyone written a blog about the lack of success of English coaches lately?

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Aren't you a bitter bloke. You do have a point though.

@18:

The UEFA Pro License is a fairly recent phenomena and most coaches do not have that badge. The likes of Sir Alex, Wenger etc do not have this badge just as recent coaches in Woodgate, Shearer etc. Of course, it is good to attend courses and be up-to-date.

That said, African FA's and CAF should also have their own training programmes across the continent. In Nigeria, the National Institute of Sports (NIS) is a good example of a training platform. Most Nigerian coaches have been at NIS taking grade badges in coaching and sports management.

In additional to FA or sport ministry run courses, African Universities could offer programmes on sports management, administration and psychology. This would go a long way in shaping the future of African sports. To say every African coach should go to Europe to attend a UEFA Pro License course is uncalled for.

The Italians have their unique way of training coaches, the Dutch have their as well. The English FA also has an independent programme whilst the Swedes have the most unique and comprehensive coach training programme of all. Swedish coaches are trained on all categories of players - from school kids to teens to adults.

African countries should also have their unique training programmes and our coaches can also excel on their merit. Africa has long trained brilliant professionals in various fields and works of life and they have competed favourably with their peers across the globe. Why can't we replicate the same with African trained coaches?

I think the idea of a foreign coach if he is a good one is a good approach. You have to give the job to the best qualified person without looking too much into nationality.

What I don't agree with is the situation where a local coach is sacked so that he can be replaced by a foreign one. A good case in point is the Nigerian one where Amodu lost his job having secured the place at the World Cup and he was replaced by a coach who has no experience in coaching in Africa or African players but passes the big test of being foreign.

I hope the African coaches will not be discouraged and it would be good one day to see good African coaches coach on other continents like what is happening now with the South American coaches.

Give me a break ´óÏó´«Ã½! When will you stop demeaning Africans and the African continent as a whole? Look, your reporters go to Ghana and all they report is to stand beside guthers and report on the filth state of the country when we have them in Hackney in London.What you always do is to report only the poor state of ghana and not reporting on the Kanda highway which is the same as the M25, The health insurance system which the previous government introduced,the school feeding programme which
also was introduced by the previous government, etc, etc.

Now lets go back to the issue today and if I can answer it with a question? ARE YOU ( ENGLAND )GOING TO SOUTH AFRICA WITH AN ENGLISH COACH?
So what is the rational behind your topic? Look Africa is growing and you guys should also grow and stop this old propaganda.

Thank You

As a South African, I'm afraid I have to agree with a few of the sentiments shared above. My feeling is that any successful team requires stability both on and off the pitch.

South Africa have had a total of 17 coaches since readmission in 1992 ( with 8 coaches in the last 8 years! Utter madness!
No team can expect to be even remotely successful or competitive from year to year (World Cup to World Cup) when there is such coaching turmoil. And it is the administrators of South African football that must take the blame. No coach has ever been given a chance long enough to see his plan come to fruition.

Unfortunately the South African administrators have been too busy finding ways of lining their pockets and handing out excessive bonuses for securing the 2010 World Cup rather than taking the time out to serious tackle the lack of footballing ability both at a national level and ground roots level.

I agree with the fact that overseas coaches have the wealth of experience at the highest level and African football can definitely learn from this. I am hopeful, however, that with the likes of Drogba, Eto, Pienaar etc, that we will begin to see the top players returning to their roots and imparting their skills and knowledge.

Sweet.

Good article piers and some interesting comments aswell but i think the main reason why africa lack some many local coaches is either based down on qualifications or finicial stability within some of africans football associations but look at egypts and algerias recent successes and you can see that their is some good in have a local coach.

I think the whole idea that these african assocaiations take with them in terms of hiring foreign coaches is that they a betterly qualified and due to their european or past sucesses they can bring install some winning metanlity into some of those african teams dressing rooms.

But its not about nationality at the end of the day its all about your tactical and mental awareness of the game as a coach and this is what gets you success. However where talking about international football and africa i think the problem with managing african teams is that their alot of exceptatons from the fans,country and associations to do well as most of these african players are based outside africa so theirs an element of exceptacy to perform at a higher level.

But when things dont go well with many of these african teams they just end of sacking the manager which not only doenst bring stability but also a level of failure. How can players adapt to one coach if you keep on sacking managers and thats the main problem with these african teams. Just look at egypts and algerias coaches look how long they have been there and the success they have brang into those countries.


Countries like Ghana,ivory coast,nigeria,cameroon and south africa as one mentioned before, keep on failing to get to those exceptations because they never seem to keep one coach for a long period which just brings confusion and havoc for many players. Another problem is that with foreign coaches they usually look at thier reputations rather than their abilites which is unfair to potential local coaches who could as good as a job of your average foreign coach

Rabah Saadane has the experience of having been to the World Cup twice before, and as mentione is the only truly African coach (of a North African team) in this the 2010 World Cup. As aqssistant coach in 1982, he witnessed Algeria's Fennecs besting the highly favored W. German team, besting Chile and only loosing the match with Austria in the first rounds of that World Cup. Considering that Algeria was a totally unknown entry into the World Cup in 1982, others may call their performance a miracle or a fluke, but it was simply good football skills and playing that to this day are spoken of and lauded. We will nver know if the 1982 Fennecs could have gone thru to win that World Cup title given the unsportsmanship behaviour of Germany & Austria in the match which kept Algeria from playing thru to the next round, but that team will forever be remembered and cheered for their accomplishments and even for what might have been.

As for this World Cup of 2010, these Fennecs are not those of 1982, but thewy have courage, heart, determination, skills and focus, plus they understand and value the concept of being a team. Saadane and the 2010 Fennecs were discounted early on as having any chance to go to Joberg this year, but June will definitely see all 23 of them with Saadane at the helm in South Africa with the intention to outfox thier opponents. They have excellent potential to prove their critics wrong....

And wouldn't it be terrific to have an African team with an African coach win the Cup on African soil? What a grand coup that would be-and just maybe Algeria, Saadane and the Fennecs would finally get the respect they have always deserved.

It bolis down to a lot of factors. For one, when the continent as whole adopts the principle of meritocracy, Africans in general will strive to attain better standards and not just settle for "the best of the bad bunch" kind of thing.. Africans will be rest assured that getting any meaningful position will depend, solely, on their competence and not on the basis of their strong connections. The Nigerian case is a good example; official sources have it that Shaibu Amodu was second to Samson Siasia in the screening process, which included both written and oral exams, yet he got the job. This kind of scenario will sure turn off a lot of competent coaches, for they know that they stand no chance of getting the job, albeit qualified, for want of strong Godfathers.

Now, there is nothing wrong with missionaries teaching us the game at the beginning of the past century;it was their game and they had better knowledge of how it was being played then, when it was very new to most of us on the continent. The scenario is a different one today, because it has been almost three decades since African footballers invaded Europe to ply their trade and also to learn how the game is played. A lot of them are back on the continent and have not been given the opportunity they deserve to teach others the secrets of the game.Steven keshi, Sunday Oliseh, Finidi George and a host of others can be mentioned in the Nigerian case. They all played at the highest levels, and have also invested time and resourses to become coaches. They will do better than these foreign adventurers, we have everywhere on the continent, who call themselves coaches. These marauders would be coaching in their countries, were they to be good coaches; they have not helped in any way to improve the quality of the game in Africa. Their interest is just in the national teams where they can just make away with easy money. Look at all of them - Westerhof, Bonfrere et el., they have been living off the money they got from Africa and the Middle East (the land of the blind). They never got the chance to coach big time in their respective countries. If they are good and really interested in seeing the game grow in Africa, they should help groom African coaches.

The lack of autonomy for local coaches is another issue that needs adressing;if local coaches are given the same conditions as been done with their foreign conterparts, they will deliver a lot better or, at least, as much as they. A lot of people call the shoots, out on the continent, so it is usually difficult for our coaches to do a sincere and focused job; they try to "be all things to all men". This is an albatross we have to eradicate from our system. A disregard for our coaches, by administrators, will culminate in disrespect for them on the part of the players under their tutelage. They have to be treated well, respected and be insentivized with generous or adequate remuneration, so that they don't sell themselves out when they are tempted to do so.

No mention of Luis Oliveira Goncalves? Poor show, Piers.

this is "not" good!

Hi Piers

Interesting blog. I'll come to that later.

Sorry for being a bit out of topic here, but this is the only interactive zone for African football on ´óÏó´«Ã½. Could you quickly help your colleagues correct their facts. Ghana were not "the finalists" of the CHAN in 2009. The final was between Congo (DRC) and Zambia.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ seems to have got their facts wrong on their story on the CHAN qualifiers for the past day or so!.

"Last year's African Nations Championship (CHAN) finalists Ghana have booked their place in the second edition of the tournament, but Nigeria are out.
The Black Stars beat Burkina Faso 1-0 in Accra to book their spot in the competition which will take place next year in Sudan.

Bismarck Idan scored the only goal of the game for Ghana.

Meanwhile Nigeria will miss out on the finals next year after losing 2-0 on aggregate to Niger..."


By the way Sven Erickson is the new Ivory Coast head coach... I see they have sophisticated tastes like the English...Isn't it? At least when it comes to hunting for foreign coaches!!!

Piers,

Now to your blog which should certainly more hits after Ivory Coast confirmed Sven's appointment as their manager on Sunday 28 March for the World Cup slated in June.

I really do not care if a national team manager comes from the country he is leading. My view is that the national coach has to be competent and should have the time to put together a good squad.

However, if there is anything about Africans hiring foreign managers that I dislike, it is these last ditch appointments - 3 or 4 months to a major tournament.

One must be living in another planet or believe in magic to think that a coach who appears two months before a competition, has little beyond 1 month to meet and discover his players can succeed to take them to glorious heights. That is what is wrong.

The Ghanaian and Cameroonian coaches to WC2010 may be European, but they effectively qualified their squads and are in the process of building or strengthening them notwithstanding their results at the Africa Cup. Sacking Amodu or even Halizozic to me was not smart. That should have been done at the end of the qualifiers (before the Africa Cup) if it was a must. If they were bad, it would have been known by then.

Metsu and Nepiomiachi who led African teams to quarter finals had been with the teams for at least 2 years...

...On a wider perspective,

I think the key to having competent Africans leading their national teams is developing the game on the continent. I have made this point before...

Develop the infrastructure,bring in sponsorship, professionalise the game in Africa. With that, most countries would retain their players in home leagues (as is happening in north Africa); clubs would be able to pay former African stars with coaching qualifications to take up management jobs; the latter would gain experience in more competitive national and pan-African club competitions; and they would attain the level of experience of their European or South American counterparts. The experience argument will be destroyed and the reins of their national teams will be theirs.

Africa has had a number of quality players who have starred for top European teams - Weah, Abedi Pele, Patrick Mboma, etc but they have been unable to take the reins of their national teams - not only because authorities in their countries are "dumb". It is also about having a proven managerial track record.

Who would you pick between Abedi Pele and Deschamps as Ghana coach? They both played for Marseille (France) where they won the Champions League; Abedi was a Black Stars hero and Deschamps won the World Cup and European nations Cup with France (1998 and 2000). But what sets them apart is that Deschamps has been training the likes of Monaco,Juventus and Marseilles while Abedi's biggest break has been coach of a local division 2or 3 side that he created himself.

Who looks like having the personality to manage people from Inter Milan, Chelsea, etc? Who looks likely to become a coach of a Ghanaian Europe based player? Deschamps! With his little pedigree he out-weighs Abedi except nationality is the only criteria for a coaching job.

We could even turn things around and ask why there are no Africans at the helm of European professional teams? I mean something above 4th tier and not goal-keeping trainer (i.e.Thomas N'Kono at Espanyol)?

Even if the sample is extended to include managers of African descent but of European nationality - few apart from Jean Tigana spring to mind (except we count Carlos Querioz?)

Question for you Mr. Piers Edward. Why is there no English Coach (or more generally British Coach) at the World Cup.
... just wondering

Here in Ghana every decision made by a local national coach is met with suspicions of tribalism and favoritism towards certain clubs and players. As a result people are normally more comfortable with foreign coaches. Secondly I think tournaments like the world cup requires coaches of world class experience which, unfortunately, most of our African compatriots don’t have. But I do believe African FA’s has the responsibility ironing out these problems to prepare them for bigger responsibilities in the future.

The problem of foreign coaches in Africa boils down to corrupt football administrators.
Everybody knows that most of the contracts signed with the foreign mercenary coaches are over inflated in order for the administrators to get their percentages.
Except African players who played in Europe step up their game and attempt to take over as coaches in top teams in Europe and South America they will never get the experience needed to be respected and offered jobs as coaches of their national teams.
Why have players such as Abedi Pele,Stephen Keshi,Sunday Oliseh and Patrick Mboma not been able to secure jobs as coaches in Europe?
I feel untill they do this the have no right demanding to coach their national teams,because if they do the the current players will not respect them and of course they will end up being sacked before the begining of major tournaments and replaced by coaches with white skins.
By the way I still believe that any African team that makes it to out of the group stages in the 2010 world cup deserves a pat on the back.