Bitter--but expected--disappointment: the continent's miserable performance at the World Cup finals is a direct consequence of the way in which the African game continues to be mismanaged by its administrators, reports Osasu Obayiuwana, who was in South Africa throughout the month-long championship.

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World Cup 2010

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Bitter--but expected--disappointment: the continent's miserable performance at the World Cup finals is a direct consequence of the way in which the African game continues to be mismanaged by its administrators, reports Osasu Obayiuwana, who was in South Africa throughout the month-long championship.

While South Africa continues to receive well-deserved applause for the professional manner in which it organised the first World Cup on the continent's soil, there is no way to sugar-coat the bitter truth about the continent's form on the pitch--it was, even with the impressive quarter-final run of Ghana's Black Stars, an utter embarrassment to the African game.

Having five out of the continent's six teams knocked out in the tournament's opening round, as well as South Africa suffering the ignominy of becoming the first host, in the event's 80-year history, not to reach its knockout stages, there is no question that an unpleasant, public price is being paid for our lack of organisation.

"This World Cup will force some people to face reality [about the poor state of African football], because, for me, the best African teams were here in South Africa," says the legendary Cameroonian Roger Milla.

"We hoped to have three or four teams in the last 16 and we only had one, so it's been a failure [for Africa]," he says matter-of-factly. But getting Issa Hayatou, the president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), who doubles as the chairman of FIFA's 2010 World Cup Organisin...

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