Football is now one of the most watched sport in Africa, and here is a brief history of African football.
Football is now one of the most watched sports in the world. Africa is among the continents that has shown more interest in the sport. There is no doubt to the fact that football is now the sport almost everyone knows in Africa.
Many Africans have shown their great love for how football is done in Europe, Asia, Africa and other continents in the world.
Because of African participation in European football, many people on the continent of Africa supports football clubs in Europe and we can name few clubs like Fc Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, As Roma, Liverpool and other big clubs.
Since football was introduced to Africa, there has been so many great players who have written their names in the history of European football after given the chance to show their talent.
Don’t forget there are so many big clubs on the African continent who have also gained much attention worldwide. In terms of talent, so many clubs in Africa have proved and still producing quality players who travel all over the world and make the people of Africa Proud.
The Early History of African Football.
Football was officially introduced to Africa in the latter part of the 19th century by Europeans. It is on record that the first football game in Africa was played in the year 1862 and by the year 1882 the game was already spreading throughout the African continent, and it was through missionaries, railways and the military.
Now this brings us to talk about the first and the longest-lasting African football clubs, the Savages FC which was founded in the year 1882 in South Africa and Gezira SC from Egypt.
The Savages FC and Gezira SC are the oldest football clubs in Africa. Now many teams were coming into existence as Alexandria FC from Egypt was also founded in 1890. CAL Oran from Algeria was also founded in 1897.
In the 20th century, football became popular on the African continent and was played in Central Africa as well.
Now let us walk you through a little bit of history. CAF was also founded as a regulatory body for African football but before CAF was founded, African football was flawed and children were exploited and witch doctors had a large part before the game. There were so many animal sacrifices and various magic rituals were performed prior to any game.
After CAF was founded to be the governing body of African football, the four founding members (countries) were Sudan, Egypt, South Africa and Ethiopia. In 1957 the first ever Africa Cup of Nations was held.
Even in the year 1934, Africa had a competitor at the World Cup and it was no other than Egypt. Though up till now no African country has been able to win the FIFA World cup for the continent but it can be assured that African Football has improved a lot as compared to when CAF wasn’t around.
