FIFA World Cup 2010: Does Africa Need More Representatives?

The World Cup on African soil has opened up so many areas for discussion, interestingly one of them being the representation of African Nations at the World stage.

Currently according to the qualifying format six nations from the continent qualify for the World Cup. Which if you look at other continents, this shows a vast difference and is unfair in many ways.

In years gone by Africa has always had a small role at the World Cup, this time round it was an African World Cup, on African soil.

But still when it came down to the football, their was a lack of representation, many would stand up and say, what has African football done to count themselves among the elite?

We've seen host South Africa, Cameroon, Algeria, Nigeria all crash out. With Ivory Coast holding on to a thread. Ghana, the only of the six to progress thus far obviously waiting on the Ivory Coast decision.

But can we justifiably take the current performances of African teams and make a decision whether FIFA can increase or in some people's opinion decrease the number of African teams at the Finals.

Personally I think not, the time for Africa has come, they need to be counted just as the Europeans who have the same number of countries entering for qualification but have more than double who qualify.

Here's the figures so you understand:

Number of teams entering qualification (including automatic qualifiers) - 2010

• Europe 53
• Asia 43
• Central & Northern America 35
• Oceania 11
• South America 10
• Africa 53

Place allocated for countries - 2010

• Europe 13
• Asia 4
• Central & Northern America 3
• Oceania 1
• South America 5
• Africa 6

So there you have it, there is a distinct gap between Europe and the rest of the World with exception from South America who boast a 50% representation.

So the question is pretty simple, Do you think Africa should be given more representation come 2014?

Many have asked FIFA for at least eight teams from Africa, with football being the primary sport on a continent that needs sport as survival.

Will FIFA return the favor after such a welcome at the 2010 World Cup?

For those who unfortunately couldn't make the trip to South Africa, you have missed out on something truly magnificent. While there may be many critics who might play negatives on the hosting thus far, we as South Africans, as Africans are proud.