Africa presently has 5 slots, with four of them already crashed out. Only Morocco is left in the ongoing tournament.<\/p>\n
In an open letter to the FIFA President, Aneke faulted the current 5 slots for African countries, describing it as a discrimination against Africa<\/p>\n
\u201cI write to state that the present five slots that FIFA has continued to allocate to Africa (CAF) in the recent editions of the World Cup is unsatisfactory and inequitable.<\/p>\n
\u201cFIFA has, as of the recent record, two hundred and eight member associations (countries) from six different Confederations, namely UEFA, CAF, AFC, CONCAF, CONMEBOL and OFC.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfrica has the largest number with 54 member associations, followed by Europe (UEFA) that has 52 member associations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsia (AFC) has 46 member associations; North, Central America and Caribbean (CONCAF) has 35 member associations; South America (CONMEBOL) has just 10 member associations while Oceania (OFC) has 11 member associations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Aneke said it was surprising that Africa has continued to be under-represented in FIFA World Cup in terms of unbefitting slots to participate in the four year world tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the present arrangement, 32 teams participate in the World Cup and Europe has the highest number of representatives with 13 teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen Africa (CAF) with the highest number of member associations in FIFA has just 5 slots while AFC (Asia), CONCAF and CONMEBOL with far less number of member associations enjoy 5 and 4 slots.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany in Africa consider the slots given to Africa as unfair and part of the seemingly entrenched marginalisation of the football loving continent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why I, like many other round leather game lovers in Africa, demand that the African continent be given at least four more slots in the four year mundial to make for a total of 9 slots for the continent, beginning from the next edition of the tournament in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is heart-warming to note that recently the \u2018Bureau\u2019 of the FIFA Council, comprising you- the FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, and the Presidents of six confederations that make up FIFA, met in Zurich and agreed on the expansion of the team participation in the World Cup from 32 to 48.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the proposed expansion, UEFA gets three more slots, thereby taking Europe\u2019s total slot to 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cCAF (Africa) will be given four more slots, making it up to 9 slots for the continent.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeanwhile, AFC gets a total of 8 slots; CONCAF and CONMEBOL will enjoy 6 slots each.<\/p>\n
\u201cSir, I encourage you to use your good office to ensure that the 9 slots proposed for Africa is realised and that Africa is not cheated when the Bureau presents its expansionist report to the \u2018FIFA Council\u2019 for ratification in May 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is necessary to give Africa, which parades an array of global stars, a sense of belonging and justice in the decisions and activities of the World\u2019s football governing body.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything short of this will be unacceptable as it portrays a clear unfair treatment and discrimination against Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf more and corresponding slots are given to Africa, it will make the World Cup more competitive and the real World Cup it ought to be as the present arrangement favours Europe to win the tournament,\u201d he further stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Executive Director, African Network For Peace And Good Governance (ANPG, Mr. Bede Aneke has demanded more slots for African countries in the next World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":23330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[7,14,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-23333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-sports","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n