The Travesty of Training African Football Teams In Europe

It is a shameful and disheartening fact that many African countries still send their national football teams for training in Europe to prepare for major tournaments, such as the African Nations Cup or World Cup qualifiers. It is beyond me why African countries continue to incur the massive expense in doing this even though they go to Europe to prepare for matches that will take place in Africa. Is there any good reason why this travesty should be taking place? First, one of the reasons for taking players away from their familiar environment is to lessen the distractions that may affect their preparation. This is a good reason for taking the players to a different country. However, they could as well go to other African countries for training rather than to Europe. Another reason is that there may be better training facilities in Europe. While this appears to be a good reason at the face of it, it tells a humiliating tale in terms of the development of African football. It says that after fifty years of independence, African countries have not been able to develop good football facilities to train their players at home, even though football is the most popular sports in the continent. Another good argument may be that European countries provide their facilities for free. However, this is not the case. So what good reason is there for African countries to go and play friendly games with other African countries in France or Germany?! Is this a manifestation of the stupidity of our governments or what? Congratulations to those African countries that do not take part in this stupidity.