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Africa's World Cup success leaves Asia looking for answers
Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Yoane Wissa's goals helped DR Congo set up a last-32 date with England in Atlanta on Wednesday By Dale Johnson Football issues correspondent Published 34 minutes ago The transformation of African football at the World Cup has been nothing short of meteoric. At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, not one of Africa's five teams made it out of the group stage, recording just three wins out of a possible 15. Fast forward to the 2026 World Cup and Africa will be held up as vindication of Gianni Infantino's expansion project. Of the 10 African teams, all but one made it through the group stage. Only Tunisia failed to progress, with Cape Verde, Egypt, âIvory Coast, Morocco and South Africa runners-up and Algeria, DR Congo, Ghana and Senegal through in third place. It is a very different story for Asia, with only two of its nine countries getting out of the group stage. For Africa it is cause for celebration, while Asia is left to reflect on failure. 'Morocco created a blueprint of how it can be done' Infantino's revamp of the World Cup had been rubber-stamped well before the 2018 World Cup. So when Africa performed so poorly in Russia, justification for giving the continent another four places appeared to be weak. Eight years on, and such concerns have been completely banished. It is a remarkable turnaround in fortunes, partly inspired by the long-term commitment by the Moroccan FA. Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Patrice Motsepe puts it down to the "hard work and investments in youth âfootball development, coaching and professional football leagues" across the continent. The first signs of improvement came in Qatar four years ago, as two African nations reached the knockout stage for the first time. Before the 2022 World Cup, only three African teams had reached the quarter-finals - Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010. Morocco achieved what no African country had done, reaching the semi-finals by beating Belgium, Spain and Portugal, before France ended their run. If Morocco could create a structure which would bring clear, long-term results - including beating supposed bigger countries in the knockout rounds - why couldn't other African countries? "Morocco created a blueprint of how it can be done, which is years and years of investing in grassroot football and academies," former Nigeria captain William Troost-Ekong told BBC Sport Africa this month. "Morocco have invested not just money but also time and effort, with a clear idea of how they can progress. "The facilities they have, the consistency throughout their age groups, I think that's the only blueprint you can follow." Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Algeria will play Switzerland in Vancouver on Thursday after taking one of the best third-place slots The new World Cup format did help, but that does not explain why Africa did so well and Asia so poorly. In most recent World Cups, two of the top 16 teams would be i
