Questions about Algeria and african teams.

[Ratopado]

Hi, I'm a fan of football and I always try to read everything about the national teams in everywhere. So, I also have to say I'm a fan of african teams. In every World Cup I choose one african team as my team (as Chile, my country, does not go ofently to World Cups) and because of that I have good feelings for the african teams. I hope that in Germany 2006 the africans will give us good results. I think that Cote d'Ivoire is a very strong team, but I really don't know a lot about Togo and Angola. I know they qualified leaving in the way out great countries such as Nigeria or Senegal. So, I would like if someone could tell me more about Togo and Angola. About Tunisia, well I kind of know more about them and I could luckily watch the final match between Tunisia and Morocco.....a great match!!!

But I really wanted to talk about Algeria. In 1982, Algeria and Chile were in the same group, but history says that Germany and Austria arranged their match so that both of them could qualify to 2nd round. I really don't know if it's true or not but what I wanted to say is that Algeria got a name after that World Cup and also after Mexico '86, eventhough they didn't obtain great results. But then Algeria never went to a World Cup and last qualyfings Algeria had an awful result. So, I wanted to ask what's happening with algerian football, is there a new generation in which Algeria has hopes to qualify for Southafrica 2010???
I would like to know that and also I have another question: Ali Benarbia, the great PSG player...was he algerian???

Well, thanks is you can answer this questions for me. And if it's possible, I would like to know which is the history of algerian football....briefly, for not bothering, ja.

Thanks and greetings to all!!!!

[TonyStarks]

To start things off, its good to hear that Algeria has fans in places like South America, i thought are were crappy results ended all that. Secondly, Ali Benarbia is Algerian (he is born in Oran, Algeria) and played 5-10 games with the national team. He is currently playing in Qatar.

As for the future, Algeria always has plenty of young stars but whenever seem to organize ourselves to be cometitive. It seems our players all end up the same, very technical but no athletism. We have some good playes coming up in Algeria and in France and I think we can be one of the best in Africa but it depends a whole lot on whether the Algerian Federation tries to fix up the situation. Half of the teams dont even play on grass fields, they play on 'astroturf' which is very bad for the bones and joints. A few names to look out for:

In Algeria
Lazhar Hadj Aissa (ES Setif)
Hocine Metref (USM Alger)
Hocine AChiou (USM Alger)
Fahem Ouslati (JS Kabylie)
Sofiane Hanister (CS Constantine)
Fahem Bouazza (USM Blida)

In France
Karim Ziani (FC Lorient)
Samir Nasri (Olympique Marseille)
Mourad Meghni (FC Sochaux)
Karim Benzema (Olympique Lyon)

For a complete list you can check out my website:

http://www.angelfire.com/ill/udmassive/dz.html

[Ratopado]

Originally posted by TonyStarks
To start things off, its good to hear that Algeria has fans in places like South America, i thought are were crappy results ended all that. Secondly, Ali Benarbia is Algerian (he is born in Oran, Algeria) and played 5-10 games with the national team. He is currently playing in Qatar.

As for the future, Algeria always has plenty of young stars but whenever seem to organize ourselves to be cometitive. It seems our players all end up the same, very technical but no athletism. We have some good playes coming up in Algeria and in France and I think we can be one of the best in Africa but it depends a whole lot on whether the Algerian Federation tries to fix up the situation. Half of the teams dont even play on grass fields, they play on 'astroturf' which is very bad for the bones and joints. A few names to look out for:

In Algeria
Lazhar Hadj Aissa (ES Setif)
Hocine Metref (USM Alger)
Hocine AChiou (USM Alger)
Fahem Ouslati (JS Kabylie)
Sofiane Hanister (CS Constantine)
Fahem Bouazza (USM Blida)

In France
Karim Ziani (FC Lorient)
Samir Nasri (Olympique Marseille)
Mourad Meghni (FC Sochaux)
Karim Benzema (Olympique Lyon)

For a complete list you can check out my website:

http://www.angelfire.com/ill/udmassive/dz.html

Hey!!

Sorry for not answering before!!!

Thanks a lot for answering my request!!!

Reading what you answered a question appeared: african football club level is kind of amateur??? I mean because you said that at least in Algeria you play matches in fields without natural grass. But, at the same time, I wonder that playing in a desert zone can be very difficult.
I really would like to know how's the level of african leagues and international clubs cups.
I've heard a lot of Rajá Casablanca and Esperence Tunisia or something like that (sorry for my mistakes I really don't remember the name!!!).

And other question: I think that Egypt, Morroco, Tunisia and Cameroon are "historical" national teams in Africa. So, my question is: which are the best african national teams throughout history???
I saw the african champions of African Nation's Cup and surpinsingly I met Ethiopia, Sudán or Mali in important places or even more, winning the cup.

Please tell me about african football!!!

Thanks a lot and hope to receive an answer.

[TonyStarks]

In terms of club I can give you a top 10 of teams:

Al Ahly (Egypt)
Zamalek (Egypt)
JS Kabylie (Algeria)

These 3 teams won the most African Cups. For the other 7 I would say:

RAJA Casablanca (Morocco)
Esperence Tunis (Tunisia) -> havent won much but have been the best team as of late
Etoile Du Sahel (Tunisia)
Hearts Of Oak (Ghana)
Enyimba (Nigeria)
Wydad Casablanca (Morocco)
ASEC Abidjan (Ivory Coast)

As for countries:

Ghana, Egypt and Cameroon have 4 African Cups each. In terms of history: Algeria dominated the 80's, plain and simple. We fell after about 1990 (after we won the African Cup). Cameroon was tough since the 90's (and at their peak in 2000-2002). Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria, Ghana all had their peaks as Africa's greatest (at one point or another). Ethiopia werent really good, they were only good when CAF had 3 teams (Egypt, Sudan and them). Thats also the time that Egypt won 2 of its African Cups. So that might be a little bit deceiving. As for clubs, they are very amateurish compared to Europe. Apart from the North African ones (and only the big clubs in each country), the rest of the teams are semi-pro in terms of infrastructure.

[ElHenni]

African Football is really good and poduces many great players. The problem that allot of countries face within their domestic leagues is that there is usually one big team that overshodows the rest.

For example in Egypt Ahli is Government sponsored, they have a 180,000 all seater stadium, each season they go round the other good Egyptian clubs and buy their best players.

Zamalek are a great team and there are some others who are not bad like Ismaili.

The second problem is the corruption. Referees are pretty bad and may say they are not bribed but their refereeing says a different thing, especially in matches that matter.

I went to see the African Champions League final 2 years ago between Ismaili and Animba of Nigeria. I saw the second leg in Egypt and Ismaili lost 1:0. Having grown up in the UK and being used to on the whole great referees it was hard to defend the appalling decisions made by the Referee. He basically gave the match to Animba, I have never seen a more blatent show of favouratism.

The final problem is how the matches end. The end of the above Champions league final ended with riots, the fans next to me were literally ripping the seats off the concrete and throwing them at the Nigerians. The Nigerians had to stand on the centre spot as it was about the only place they couldnt be hit.

The year before that the final was between an Algerian team and a Moroc team which ended in riots. There was a match between Algeria and Egypt a couple of years ago in Blida, Algeria and at the end of the match the Algerian fans were so enraged that they pushed the Egyptian team bus into a river. This anger came about because the Egyptians had beaten many Algerian fans in a previous match in Egypt.

The players are great in Africa, the teams are great, the international teams are great and all are improving all the time. What needs to be improved is the system, cut out the corruption, the violence and make the teams more fairly balanced by not allowing Governments to side with certain teams.