The South Africa-hosted Fifa World Cup was supposed to be the moment in which African football teams finally came good.
The old palace in Cairo, Egypt, was an appropriate metaphor for African football as it gathered together all its national team coaches, just months after the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa, to reflect on the tournament.
The idea of the gathering was to reflect on the performance of the six African countries represented at that World Cup: Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Africa.
"Although 85% of the African players who tasted action at the World Cup are contracted to European clubs, they have so far been unable to fully bring their experience to bear when playing for their national teams," said the technical report Fifa commissioned after the tournament.
Furthermore, five of the six African teams had foreign coaches, most of whom were either brought on board at short notice or only for the World Cup finals.
