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brookstonalmanac · 3 years ago

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Events 7.11

472 – After being besieged in Rome by his own generals, Western Roman Emperor Anthemius is captured in St. Peter's Basilica and put to death. 813 – Byzantine emperor Michael I, under threat by conspiracies, abdicates in favor of his general Leo the Armenian, and becomes a monk (under the name Athanasius). 911 – Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy. 1174 – Baldwin IV, 13, becomes King of Jerusalem, with Raymond III, Count of Tripoli as regent and William of Tyre as chancellor. 1302 – Battle of the Golden Spurs (Guldensporenslag in Dutch): A coalition around the Flemish cities defeats the king of France's royal army. 1346 – Charles IV, Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, is elected King of the Romans. 1405 – Ming admiral Zheng He sets sail to explore the world for the first time. 1410 – Ottoman Interregnum: Süleyman Çelebi defeats his brother Musa Çelebi outside the Ottoman capital, Edirne. 1476 – Giuliano della Rovere is appointed bishop of Coutances. 1576 – While exploring the North Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage, Martin Frobisher sights Greenland, mistaking it for the hypothesized (but non-existent) island of "Frisland". 1616 – Samuel de Champlain returns to Quebec. 1735 – Mathematical calculations suggest that it is on this day that dwarf planet Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune for the last time before 1979. 1789 – Jacques Necker is dismissed as France's Finance Minister sparking the Storming of the Bastille. 1796 – The United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty. 1798 – The United States Marine Corps is re-established; they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War. 1801 – French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons makes his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovers another 36 comets, more than any other person in history. 1804 – A duel occurs in which the Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. 1833 – Noongar Australian aboriginal warrior Yagan, wanted for the murder of white colonists in Western Australia, is killed. 1848 – Waterloo railway station in London opens. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Stevens; Confederate forces attempt to invade Washington, D.C. 1882 – The British Mediterranean Fleet begins the Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt as part of the Anglo-Egyptian War. 1889 – Tijuana, Mexico, is founded. 1893 – The first cultured pearl is obtained by Kōkichi Mikimoto. 1893 – A revolution led by the liberal general and politician José Santos Zelaya takes over state power in Nicaragua. 1897 – Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon. 1899 – Fiat founded by Giovanni Agnelli in Turin, Italy. 1906 – Murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in the United States, inspiration for Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. 1914 – Babe Ruth makes his debut in Major League Baseball. 1914 – USS Nevada (BB-36) is launched. 1919 – The eight-hour day and free Sunday become law for workers in the Netherlands. 1920 – In the East Prussian plebiscite the local populace decides to remain with Weimar Germany. 1921 – A truce in the Irish War of Independence comes into effect. 1921 – The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People's Republic. 1921 – Former president of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the only person ever to hold both offices. 1922 – The Hollywood Bowl opens. 1924 – Eric Liddell won the gold medal in 400m at the 1924 Paris Olympics, after refusing to run in the heats for 100m, his favoured distance, on the Sunday. 1934 – Engelbert Zaschka of Germany flies his large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft, about 20 meters at Berlin Tempelhof Airport without assisted take-off. 1936 – The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic. 1940 – World War II: Vichy France regime is formally established. Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of the French State. 1941 – The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana. 1943 – Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak. 1943 – World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily: German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily. 1947 – The Exodus 1947 heads to Palestine from France. 1950 – Pakistan joins the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank. 1957 – Prince Karim Husseini Aga Khan IV inherits the office of Imamat as the 49th Imam of Shia Imami Ismai'li worldwide, after the death of Sir Sultan Mahommed Shah Aga Khan III. 1960 – France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina) and Niger. 1960 – Congo Crisis: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States. 1962 – First transatlantic satellite television transmission. 1962 – Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth. 1971 – Copper mines in Chile are nationalized. 1972 – The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts. 1973 – Varig Flight 820 crashes near Paris, France on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA bans smoking in airplane lavatories. 1977 – Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968, is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 1978 – Los Alfaques disaster: A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain killing 216 tourists. 1979 – America's first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. 1983 – A TAME airline Boeing 737-200 crashes near Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 119 passengers and crew on board. 1990 – Oka Crisis: First Nations land dispute in Quebec, Canada begins. 1991 – Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia killing all 261 passengers and crew on board. 1995 – Yugoslav Wars: Srebrenica massacre begins; lasts until 22 July. 2006 – Mumbai train bombings: Two hundred nine people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India. 2010 – The Islamist militia group Al-Shabaab carried out multiple suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, killing 74 people and injuring 85 others. 2011 – Ninety-eight containers of explosives self-detonate killing 13 people in Zygi, Cyprus. 2015 – Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán escapes from the maximum security prison in Altiplano, in Mexico. It's his second escape.

#Events

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thefortyeightlawsofpower-blog · 7 years ago

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LAW # 23 : CONCENTRATE YOUR FORCES

JUDGEMENT

Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point. You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another—intensity defeats extensity every time. When looking for sources of power to elevate you, find the one key patron, the fat cow who will give you milk for a long time to come.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

In China in the early sixth century B.C., the kingdom of Wu began a war with the neighboring northern provinces of the Middle Kingdom. Wu was a growing power, but it lacked the great history and civilization of the Middle Kingdom, for centuries the center of Chinese culture. By defeating the Middle Kingdom, the king of Wu would instantly raise his status.

The war began with great fanfare and several victories, but it soon bogged down. A victory on one front would leave the Wu armies vulnerable on another. The king’s chief minister and adviser, Wu Tzu-hsiu, warned him that the barbarous state of Yueh, to the south, was beginning to notice the kingdom of Wu’s problems and had designs to invade. The king only laughed at such worries—one more big victory and the great Middle Kingdom would be his.

THE GOOSE AND THE HOUSE

A goose who was plucking grass upon a common thought herself affronted by a horse who fed near her; and, in hissing accents, thus addressed him: “I am certainly a more noble and perfect animal than you, for the whole range and extent of your faculties is confined to one element. I can walk upon the ground as well as you; I have, besides, wings, with which I can raise myself in the air; and when I please, I can sport on ponds and lakes, and refresh myself in the cool waters. I enjoy the different powers of a bird, a fish, and a quadruped.”

The horse, snorting somewhat disdainfully, replied: “It is true you inhabit three elements, but you make no very distinguished figure in any one of them. You fly, indeed; but your flight is so heavy and clumsy, that you have no right to put yourself on a level with the lark or the swallow. You can swim on the surface of the waters, but you cannot live in them as fishes do; you cannot find your food in that element, nor glide smoothly along the bottom of the waves. And when you walk, or rather waddle, upon the ground, with your broad feet and your long neck stretched out, hissing at everyone who passes by, you bring upon yourself the derision of all beholders. I confess that I am only formed to move upon the ground; but how graceful is my make! How well turned my limbs! How highly finished my whole body! How great my strength! How astonishing my speed! I had much rather be confined to one element, and be admired in that, than be a goose in all!”

FABLES FROM BOCCAACCIO AND CHAUCER. DR. JOHN AIKIN, 1747-1822

In the year 490, Wu Tzu-hsiu sent his son away to safety in the kingdom of Ch’i. In doing so he sent the king a signal that he disapproved of the war, and that he believed the king’s selfish ambition was leading Wu to ruin. The king, sensing betrayal, lashed out at his minister, accusing him of a lack of loyalty and, in a fit of anger, ordered him to kill himself. Wu Tzu-hsiu obeyed his king, but before he plunged the knife into his chest, he cried, “Tear out my eyes, oh King, and fix them on the gate of Wu, so that I may see the triumphant entry of Yueh.”

As Wu Tzu-hsiu had predicted, within a few years a Yueh army passed beneath the gate of Wu. As the barbarians surrounded the palace, the king remembered his minister’s last words—and felt the dead man’s disembodied eyes watching his disgrace. Unable to bear his shame, the king killed himself, “covering his face so that he would not have to meet the reproachful gaze of his minister in the next world.”

Interpretation

The story of Wu is a paradigm of all the empires that have come to ruin by overreaching. Drunk with success and sick with ambition, such empires expand to grotesque proportions and meet a ruin that is total. This is what happened to ancient Athens, which lusted for the faraway island of Sicily and ended up losing its empire. The Romans stretched the boundaries of their empire to encompass vast territories; in doing so they increased their vulnerability, and the chances of invasion from yet another barbarian tribe. Their useless expansion led their empire into oblivion.

For the Chinese, the fate of the kingdom of Wu serves as an elemental lesson on what happens when you dissipate your forces on several fronts, losing sight of distant dangers for the sake of present gain. “If you are not in danger,” says Sun-tzu, “do not fight.” It is almost a physical law: What is bloated beyond its proportions inevitably collapses. The mind must not wander from goal to goal, or be distracted by success from its sense of purpose and proportion. What is concentrated, coherent, and connected to its past has power. What is dissipated, divided, and distended rots and falls to the ground. The bigger it bloats, the harder it falls.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

The Rothschild banking family had humble beginnings in the Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt, Germany. The city’s harsh laws made it impossible for Jews to mingle outside the ghetto, but the Jews had turned this into a virtue—it made them self-reliant, and zealous to preserve their culture at all costs. Mayer Amschel, the first of the Rothschilds to accumulate wealth by lending money, in the late eighteenth century, well understood the power that comes from this kind of concentration and cohesion.

First, Mayer Amschel allied himself with one family, the powerful princes of Thurn und Taxis. Instead of spreading his services out, he made himself these princes’ primary banker. Second, he entrusted none of his business to outsiders, using only his children and close relatives. The more unified and tight-knit the family, the more powerful it would become. Soon Mayer Amschel’s five sons were running the business. And when Mayer Amschel lay dying, in 1812, he refused to name a principal heir, instead setting up all of his sons to continue the family tradition, so that they would stay united and would resist the dangers of diffusion and of infiltration by outsiders.

Beware of dissipating your powers: strive constantly to concentrate them. Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others doing, but it is sure to repent of every ill-judged outlay.

JOHANN VON GOETHE, 1749-1832

Once Mayer Amschel’s sons controlled the family business, they decided that the key to wealth on a larger scale was to secure a foothold in the finances of Europe as a whole, rather than being tied to any one country or prince. Of the five brothers, Nathan had already opened up shop in London. In 1813 James moved to Paris. Amschel remained in Frankfurt, Salomon established himself in Vienna, and Karl, the youngest son, went to Naples. With each sphere of influence covered, they could tighten their hold on Europe’s financial markets.

This widespread network, of course, opened the Rothschilds to the very danger of which their father had warned them: diffusion, division, dissension. They avoided this danger, and established themselves as the most powerful force in European finance and politics, by once again resorting to the strategy of the ghetto—excluding outsiders, concentrating their forces. The Rothschilds established the fastest courier system in Europe, allowing them to get news of events before all their competitors. They held a virtual monopoly on information. And their internal communications and correspondence were written in Frankfurt Yiddish, and in a code that only the brothers could decipher. There was no point in stealing this information—no one could understand it. “Even the shrewdest bankers cannot find their way through the Rothschild maze,” admitted a financier who had tried to infiltrate the clan.

In 1824 James Rothschild decided it was time to get married. This presented a problem for the Rothschilds, since it meant incorporating an outsider into the Rothschild clan, an outsider who could betray its secrets. James therefore decided to marry within the family, and chose the daughter of his brother Salomon. The brothers were ecstatic—this was the perfect solution to their marriage problems. James’s choice now became the family policy: Two years later, Nathan married off his daughter to Salomon’s son. In the years to come, the five brothers arranged eighteen matches among their children, sixteen of these being contracted between first cousins.

“We are like the mechanism of a watch: Each part is essential,” said brother Salomon. As in a watch, every part of the business moved in concert with every other, and the inner workings were invisible to the world, which only saw the movement of the hands. While other rich and powerful families suffered irrecoverable downturns during the tumultous first half of the nineteenth century, the tight-knit Rothschilds managed not only to preserve but to expand their unprecedented wealth.

Interpretation

The Rothschilds were born in strange times. They came from a place that had not changed in centuries, but lived in an age that gave birth to the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, and an endless series of upheavals. The Rothchilds kept the past alive, resisted the patterns of dispersion of their era and for this are emblematic of the law of concentration.

No one represents this better than James Rothschild, the son who established himself in Paris. In his lifetime James witnessed the defeat of Napoleon, the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy, the bourgeois monarchy of Orleans, the return to a republic, and finally the enthronement of Napoleon III. French styles and fashions changed at a relentless pace during all this turmoil. Without appearing to be a relic of the past, James steered his family as if the ghetto lived on within them. He kept alive his clan’s inner cohesion and strength. Only through such an anchoring in the past was the family able to thrive amidst such chaos. Concentration was the foundation of the Rothschilds’ power, wealth, and stability.

The best strategy is always to be very strony first in general, then at the decisive point.... There is no higher and simpler law of strategy than that of keeping one’s forces concentrated.... In short the first principle is: act with the utmost concentration.

On War, Carl von Clausewitz, 1780-1831

KEYS TO POWER

The world is plagued by greater and greater division—within countries, political groups, families, even individuals. We are all in a state of total distraction and diffusion, hardly able to keep our minds in one direction before we are pulled in a thousand others. The modern world’s level of conflict is higher than ever, and we have internalized it in our own lives.

The solution is a form of retreat inside ourselves, to the past, to more concentrated forms of thought and action. As Schopenhauer wrote, “Intellect is a magnitude of intensity, not a magnitude of extensity.” Napoleon knew the value of concentrating your forces at the enemy’s weakest spot— it was the secret of his success on the battlefield. But his willpower and his mind were equally modeled on this notion. Single-mindedness of purpose, total concentration on the goal, and the use of these qualities against people less focused, people in a state of distraction—such an arrow will find its mark every time and overwhelm the enemy.

Casanova attributed his success in life to his ability to concentrate on a single goal and push at it until it yielded. It was his ability to give himself over completely to the women he desired that made him so intensely seductive. For the weeks or months that one of these women lived in his orbit, he thought of no one else. When he was imprisoned in the treacherous “leads” of the doge’s palace in Venice, a prison from which no one had ever escaped, he concentrated his mind on the single goal of escape, day after day. A change of cells, which meant that months of digging had all been for naught, did not discourage him; he persisted and eventually escaped. “I have always believed,” he later wrote, “that when a man gets it into his head to do something, and when he exclusively occupies himself in that design, he must succeed, whatever the difficulties. That man will become Grand Vizier or Pope.”

Concentrate on a single goal, a single task, and beat it into submission. In the world of power you will constantly need help from other people, usually those more powerful than you. The fool flits from one person to another, believing that he will survive by spreading himself out. It is a corollary of the law of concentration, however, that much energy is saved, and more power is attained, by affixing yourself to a single, appropriate source of power. The scientist Nikola Tesla ruined himself by believing that he somehow maintained his independence by not having to serve a single master. He even turned down J. P. Morgan, who offered him a rich contract. In the end, Tesla’s “independence” meant that he could depend on no single patron, but was always having to toady up to a dozen of them. Later in his life he realized his mistake.

All the great Renaissance painters and writers wrestled with this problem, none more so than the sixteenth-century writer Pietro Aretino. Throughout his life Aretino suffered the indignities of having to please this prince and that. At last, he had had enough, and decided to woo Charles V, promising the emperor the services of his powerful pen. He finally discovered the freedom that came from attachment to a single source of power. Michelangelo found this freedom with Pope Julius II, Galileo with the Medicis. In the end, the single patron appreciates your loyalty and becomes dependent on your services; in the long run the master serves the slave.

Finally, power itself always exists in concentrated forms. In any organization it is inevitable for a small group to hold the strings. And often it is not those with the titles. In the game of power, only the fool flails about without fixing his target. You must find out who controls the operations, who is the real director behind the scenes. As Richelieu discovered at the beginning of his rise to the top of the French political scene during the early seventeenth century, it was not King Louis XIII who decided things, it was the king’s mother. And so he attached himself to her, and catapulted through the ranks of the courtiers, all the way to the top.

It is enough to strike oil once—your wealth and power are assured for a lifetime.

Image: The Arrow. You cannot hit two targets with one arrow. If your thoughts stray, you miss the enemy’s heart. Mind and arrow must become one. Only with such concentration of mental and physical power can your arrow hit the target and pierce the heart.

Authority: Prize intensity more than extensity. Perfection resides in quality, not quantity. Extent alone never rises above mediocrity, and it is the misfortune of men with wide general interests that while they would like to have their finger in every pie, they have one in none. Intensity gives eminence, and rises to the heroic in matters sublime. (Baltasar Gracián, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

There are dangers in concentration, and moments when dispersion is the proper tactical move. Fighting the Nationalists for control of China, Mao Tse-tung and the Communists fought a protracted war on several fronts, using sabotage and ambush as their main weapons. Dispersal is often suitable for the weaker side; it is, in fact, a crucial principle of guerrilla warfare. When fighting a stronger army, concentrating your forces only makes you an easier target—better to dissolve into the scenery and frustrate your enemy with the elusiveness of your presence.

Tying yourself to a single source of power has one preeminent danger: If that person dies, leaves, or falls from grace, you suffer. This is what happened to Cesare Borgia, who derived his power from his father, Pope Alexander VI. It was the pope who gave Cesare armies to fight with and wars to wage in his name. When he suddenly died (perhaps from poison), Cesare was as good as dead. He had made far too many enemies over the years, and was now without his father’s protection. In cases when you may need protection, then, it is often wise to entwine yourself around several sources of power. Such a move would be especially prudent in periods of great tumult and violent change, or when your enemies are numerous. The more patrons and masters you serve the less risk you run if one of them falls from power. Such dispersion will even allow you to play one off against the other. Even if you concentrate on the single source of power, you still must practice caution, and prepare for the day when your master or patron is no longer there to help you.

Finally, being too single-minded in purpose can make you an intolerable bore, especially in the arts. The Renaissance painter Paolo Uccello was so obsessed with perspective that his paintings look lifeless and contrived. Whereas Leonardo da Vinci interested himself in everything—architecture, painting, warfare, sculpture, mechanics. Diffusion was the source of his power. But such genius is rare, and the rest of us are better off erring on the side of intensity.

#quotes #inspiration #self improvement #history #philosophy

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sabryna88rsi · 4 years ago

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The Librarian 2 - Ritorno alle miniere di Re Salomone (2006)

The Librarian 2 – Ritorno alle miniere di Re Salomone (2006)

Cliccare QUA per il film su AKvideo

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The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines USA, 2006 Genere: Avventura Regia di Jonathan Frakes Con Noah Wyle, Gabrielle Anwar, Bob Newhart, Jane Curtin, Olympia Dukakis, Erick Avari, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Lisa Brenner, Robert Foxworth… TRAMA DEL FILM: Flynn Carsen, già protagonista del primo episodio, lavora come…

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#Avventura

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ultrasfcb-blog · 6 years ago

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World Cup 2018: Will an African workforce attain semi-finals for first time?

No African facet has gone past the quarter-finals on the World Cup

“Once I first began to teach Ivory Coast I mentioned to Didier Drogba: ‘We’ve got some incredible gamers and we are able to go far within the World Cup.’ He mentioned: ‘No we will not’.”

Sven-Goran Eriksson is making an attempt to shed some mild on why Africa continues to be ready for a primary World Cup triumph greater than 20 years after Brazil legend Pele predicted a winner from the continent by 2000. By the tip of the 2010 World Cup, the Swede understood Drogba was not being detrimental – simply life like.

“The rationale why they do not do it? One phrase: organisation. It was whole chaos after I joined,” Eriksson advised BBC Sport.

At one stage, Pele’s prediction seemed prefer it may come to move. Nigeria got here prime of a gaggle that includes Argentina and Diego Maradona on the 1994 version, whereas the likes of George Weah and Jay-Jay Okocha had been making their mark in Europe through the 1990s.

But Africa, the second most-populated continent and a spot the place soccer is king, has nonetheless to supply a workforce to advance past the quarter-finals – not to mention raise the gold trophy.

Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia will compete in Russia later this month – however few imagine they’ll get close to the ultimate, together with former Cameroon defender Lauren.

“I might say we’ll have a workforce within the semi-finals however that is not the truth,” mentioned the two-time Africa Cup of Nations winner. “We’re nonetheless behind the highest groups.”

50 nice World Cup moments: Roger Milla’s well-known dance celebration

Energy shift in Africa?

Not one of the 5 heading to Russia are within the prime 20 of Fifa’s world rankings and Peter Odemwingie, the previous Nigeria ahead, claims African soccer has gone backwards.

“There’s undoubtedly been a decline,” mentioned the ex-West Brom, Cardiff and Stoke striker, who performed on the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

“Nigeria had among the best African squads on the 1994 World Cup. We had been knocking on the door. We gained the 1996 Olympics by beating Brazil and Argentina with all their stars.

“That interval was like, ‘sure, it is coming’.”

However Nigeria, who will likely be competing at their sixth finals in Russia, are nonetheless ready. Together with the remainder of Africa.

The three groups to make the quarter-finals – Cameroon (1990) , Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) – have come from sub-Saharan Africa.

However in Russia, there will likely be extra groups from the north than elsewhere on the continent, together with a first appearance in 28 years for Egypt and a return after 20 years for Morocco.

A variety of north African international locations have gamers who discovered their commerce at academies in Europe, however it’s Morocco who arrive at this World Cup with the most foreign-born players – seventeen of their 23-man squad had been born outdoors the nation.

Odemwingie believes those that play for the north African nations are “extra intelligent” at studying the sport and has additionally seen a bodily distinction.

“It is like Anthony Joshua combating Floyd Mayweather,” he mentioned on evaluating a typical participant from sub-Saharan Africa with one from the north. “The gamers within the north are a bit of bit leaner.

“They all the time begin free-kicks sooner, they’ve the psychological sport a bit greater than the sub-Saharan groups.”

Egypt are competing at their first World Cup finals since Italia 90, the place they drew with the Netherlands and Republic of Eire earlier than dropping to England

Bonus rows and boycotts

On the 2014 World Cup, Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria all made headlines for the incorrect causes.

Ghana’s gamers boycotted training in protest at not receiving look charges owed to them in Brazil. It was solely settled when their authorities despatched greater than $3m (£1.8m) in money by airplane. In the meantime, Cameroon’s gamers arrived late in South America due to a dispute over bonus funds.

The Nigeria Soccer Federation (NFF) and the nation’s gamers signed an agreement final November in regards to the cost construction for the 2018 World Cup to keep away from issues in Russia.

Former Tunisia World Cup defender Radhi Jaidi believes the monetary disputes are right down to “damaged guarantees”.

“Gamers who come from Europe to play for his or her nation, these gamers receives a commission on time by their golf equipment, they get bonuses, however it may be completely different once they play for his or her nation,” Jaidi advised BBC Sport.

“Individuals promise issues and when they do not get them gamers get pissed off and conflict.”

But off-field controversies aren’t one thing north African nations have needed to fear about, primarily as a result of issues like bonuses are sorted properly upfront of the event, in response to BBC Africa’s Piers Edwards.

“They’re extra organised and there is larger accountability,” added Edwards.

In fact, World Cup rifts aren’t unique to Africa.

Eight years in the past, France’s gamers refused to coach following Nicolas Anelka’s expulsion from the squad for verbally insulting coach Raymond Domenech, whereas the Republic of Eire had been rocked by Roy Keane’s infamous row with supervisor Mick McCarthy in 2002.

Former Cameroon and Arsenal defender Lauren talks to the BBC’s Victoria Uwonkunda about Africa’s possibilities on the 2018 World Cup.

‘It is Africa, it is like this’

Eriksson was in control of Ivory Coast main as much as and through the 2010 World Cup.

He had loads of expertise at his disposal, together with forwards Drogba and Salomon Kalou, who had each simply won the Premier League with Chelsea, in addition to midfielder Yaya Toure.

But the previous England boss encountered “a complete lack of organisation” as he ready for group video games in South Africa in opposition to Portugal, Brazil and North Korea.

“We performed a pleasant in Switzerland and we went into the dressing room and there have been no shirts, no equipment, and it was one hour and fifteen minutes earlier than kick-off,” Eriksson mentioned.

“I requested the place the equipment man was and was advised he’ll come.

“One hour earlier than the sport – equipment man not there. Forty-five minutes [before], the equipment man got here with two enormous baggage and he put them on the dressing room ground.

“All of the gamers had been within the baggage in search of shirts that match them. All I might hear was: ‘This isn’t mine, that is yours’.

“Simply earlier than the warm-up one of many gamers got here to me and mentioned: ‘I am unable to play’. I requested: ‘Are you injured?’ He mentioned: ‘No, the equipment man forgot my boots.’ The lodge was distant so he could not play.

“Drogba mentioned to me: ‘Sven, it is Africa. It is like this.’

World Cup countdown: Suarez handball denies Ghana – 2010

The decision for higher organisation is acquainted to those that have performed and managed within the sub-Saharan area.

Patrick Mboma remembers Cameroon’s 2002 World Cup hopes just about finish earlier than the workforce even arrived in Japan.

“A very powerful factor while you’ve certified is that you’ve seven or eight months to organize,” mentioned the previous Paris St-Germain striker.

“However you have got some leaders who assume you may put together for a World Cup one month or two months earlier than. It is all the time too late.

“In 2002, I believed we might make it to the final 4. Then it took 46 hours to achieve Japan from Paris – so you may think about how troublesome it was.”

Tunisia’s preparations for a similar event had been disrupted by the sacking of Henri Michel shortly earlier than the event.

“They spent a few months deciding on who was going to interchange him. We did not win a sport in Japan,” recollects Jaidi.

Lack of home-grown nationwide managers

Of the 44 events African groups have competed on the World Cup come Russia 2018, 30 can have been managed by a non-African.

Cameroon, who as seven-time qualifiers are Africa’s most profitable World Cup nation, have been led by 4 Frenchmen, two Germans and one Russian on the event.

In Russia, Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria will likely be coached by an Argentine, a Frenchman and a German respectively.

Scotland’s James McRea, a participant with West Ham and Manchester United, set the tone for Africa’s World Cup outings when main Egypt in 1934. Followers needed to wait one other 44 years for a primary African World Cup coach, with Abdelmajid Chetali main Tunisia to the continent’s first win on the finals – a 3-1 defeat of Mexico.

It was not till 2002 that a sub-Saharan nation first travelled to the finals with their very own coach – Festus Onigbinde main Nigeria, Jomo Sono on the helm for South Africa.

With no African having taken his nation right into a World Cup quarter-final, these overseas appointments look set to proceed.

“European coaches are completely different as a result of they will provide much more than the matchday,” added Odemwingie.

“They’ll put together higher tactically slightly than simply counting on expertise, which is what our coaches did.

“Now soccer has gone to sports activities science, vitamin… these are issues a few of our coaches had by no means even heard about.

“We’re extra depending on skilled coaches however we have an issue as a result of we’re making an attempt to develop our personal managers and coaches.”

Senegal boss Aliou Cisse performed within the Premier League for Birmingham and Portsmouth

Eriksson believes groups would have higher success in the event that they adopted the examples of Senegal – making their first look at a finals since 2002 after appointing Aliou Cisse in 2015 – and Tunisia, who return to the event after a 12-year absence underneath Tunisia-born Nabil Maaloul.

“What some African nations do is have an area coach throughout qualification and if they’re profitable they then absorb an enormous identify from Europe or South America one or two months earlier than the event,” he added.

“They need to absorb a coach and hold them for 4 years.

“It will be significantly better as a result of, even when you’ve got nice gamers, to work with them for only one month at a World Cup is just too little.”

Gentle on the finish of the tunnel?

Morocco have certified for the World Cup for the primary time since 1998

Morocco is within the operating to host the World Cup in eight years’ time.

The North African nation is the one rival to a joint bid from Canada, Mexico and the US for the expanded 48-team 2026 finals. A choice is due on Wednesday.

Journalist and African soccer knowledgeable Mark Gleeson doesn’t assume it’s past the realms of risk that Africa will likely be celebrating a World Cup success sooner or later.

“You’ll all the time get these uncommon moments when every little thing clicks,” he mentioned. “Have a look at Turkey in 2002. It will have been a preposterous concept earlier than the event that they’d attain the semi-finals.”

And regardless of an absence of organisation, infrastructure and funds, Jaidi is assured concerning the future.

Current modifications have been made to refereeing constructions and training requirements in an try and bolster the possibilities of African sides and, for the continent to succeed globally, a transparent pathway to native success must be carved, in response to the previous Southampton defender.

“The issue is wider than simply: ‘Oh yeah, undoubtedly an African workforce will win the World Cup,'” mentioned Jaidi. “It is a complicated state of affairs. It is not only one problem or one downside.

“When African groups play on the World Cup, there’s all the time a thought in the back of the thoughts that we have now no likelihood.

“We have to construct a base that provides help to younger African gamers who are actually 10 or 15 years outdated to assist them to the very best requirements.”

Brighton and Cameroon defender Gaetan Bong mentioned even essentially the most fundamental services wanted to enhance in Africa.

“Generally you can not even play as a result of the pitch just isn’t adequate,” he mentioned. “We have to develop extra as a result of we have now numerous gifted gamers in Africa – however we do not have sturdy leagues.”

For all the issues he encountered with Ivory Coast, Eriksson hopes Africa will likely be celebrating a future World Cup triumph.

Requested how far an African facet is from being world champions, the Swede mentioned: “I do not know when however I believe Africa will win the World Cup in the end. Possibly later. It is a pity as a result of curiosity in soccer in Africa is big.”

Egypt’s World Cup Group A video games 15 June: v Uruguay Yekaterinburg 13:00 BST 19 June: v Russia St Petersburg 19:00 BST 25 June: v Saudi Arabia Volgograd 15:00 BST

Morocco’s World Cup Group B video games 15 June: v Iran St Petersburg 16:00 BST 20 June: v Portugal Moscow 13:00 BST 25 June: v Spain Kaliningrad 19:00 BST

Nigeria’s World Cup Group D video games 16 June: v Croatia Kaliningrad 20:00 BST 22 June: v Iceland Volgograd 16:00 BST 26 June: v Argentina St Petersburg 19:00 BST

Tunisia’s World Cup Group G video games 18 June: v England Volgograd 19:00 BST 23 June: v Belgium Moscow 13:00 BST 28 June: v Panama Saransk 19:00 BST

Senegal’s World Cup Group H video games 19 June: v Poland Moscow 16:00 BST 24 June: v Japan Yekaterinburg 16:00 BST 28 June: v Colombia Samara 15:00 BST

BBC Sport – Football ultras_FC_Barcelona

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#Football

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brookstonalmanac · 4 years ago

Text

Events 7.11

472 – After being besieged in Rome by his own generals, Western Roman Emperor Anthemius is captured in St. Peter's Basilica and put to death. 813 – Byzantine emperor Michael I, under threat by conspiracies, abdicates in favor of his general Leo the Armenian, and becomes a monk (under the name Athanasius). 911 – Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy. 1174 – Baldwin IV, 13, becomes King of Jerusalem, with Raymond III, Count of Tripoli as regent and William of Tyre as chancellor. 1302 – Battle of the Golden Spurs (Guldensporenslag in Dutch): A coalition around the Flemish cities defeats the king of France's royal army. 1346 – Charles IV, Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, is elected King of the Romans. 1405 – Ming admiral Zheng He sets sail to explore the world for the first time. 1476 – Giuliano della Rovere is appointed bishop of Coutances. 1576 – While exploring the North Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage, Martin Frobisher sights Greenland, mistaking it for the hypothesized (but non-existent) island of "Frisland". 1616 – Samuel de Champlain returns to Quebec. 1735 – Mathematical calculations suggest that it is on this day that dwarf planet Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune for the last time before 1979. 1789 – Jacques Necker is dismissed as France's Finance Minister sparking the Storming of the Bastille. 1796 – The United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty. 1798 – The United States Marine Corps is re-established; they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War. 1801 – French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons makes his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovers another 36 comets, more than any other person in history. 1804 – A duel occurs in which the Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. 1833 – Noongar Australian aboriginal warrior Yagan, wanted for the murder of white colonists in Western Australia, is killed. 1848 – Waterloo railway station in London opens. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Stevens; Confederate forces attempt to invade Washington, D.C. 1882 – The British Mediterranean Fleet begins the Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt as part of the Anglo-Egyptian War. 1889 – Tijuana, Mexico, is founded. 1893 – The first cultured pearl is obtained by Kōkichi Mikimoto. 1893 – A revolution led by the liberal general and politician José Santos Zelaya takes over state power in Nicaragua. 1895 – Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière demonstrate movie film technology to scientists. 1897 – Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon. He later crashes and dies. 1899 – Fiat founded by Giovanni Agnelli in Turin, Italy. 1906 – Murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in the United States, inspiration for Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. 1914 – Babe Ruth makes his debut in Major League Baseball. 1914 – USS Nevada (BB-36) is launched. 1919 – The eight-hour day and free Sunday become law for workers in the Netherlands. 1920 – In the East Prussian plebiscite the local populace decides to remain with Weimar Germany. 1921 – A truce in the Irish War of Independence comes into effect. 1921 – The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People's Republic. 1921 – Former president of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the only person ever to hold both offices. 1922 – The Hollywood Bowl opens. 1924 – Eric Liddell won the gold medal in 400m at the 1924 Paris Olympics, after refusing to run in the heats for 100m, his favoured distance, on the Sunday. 1934 – Engelbert Zaschka of Germany flies his large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft, about 20 meters at Berlin Tempelhof Airport without assisted take-off. 1936 – The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic. 1940 – World War II: Vichy France regime is formally established. Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of the French State. 1941 – The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana. 1943 – Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak. 1943 – World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily: German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily. 1947 – The Exodus 1947 heads to Palestine from France. 1950 – Pakistan joins the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank. 1957 – Prince Karim Husseini Aga Khan IV inherits the office of Imamat as the 49th Imam of Shia Imami Ismai'li worldwide, after the death of Sir Sultan Mahommed Shah Aga Khan III. 1960 – France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina) and Niger. 1960 – Congo Crisis: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States. 1962 – First transatlantic satellite television transmission. 1962 – Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth. 1971 – Copper mines in Chile are nationalized. 1972 – The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts. 1973 – Varig Flight 820 crashes near Paris, France on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA bans smoking in airplane lavatories. 1977 – Martin Luther King, Jr. is posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 1978 – Los Alfaques disaster: A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain killing 216 tourists. 1979 – America's first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. 1983 – A TAME airline Boeing 737-200 crashes near Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 119 passengers and crew on board. 1990 – Oka Crisis: First Nations land dispute in Quebec, Canada begins. 1991 – Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia killing all 261 passengers and crew on board. 1995 – Yugoslav Wars: Srebrenica massacre begins; lasts until 22 July. 2006 – Mumbai train bombings: Two hundred nine people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India. 2010 – The Islamist militia group Al-Shabaab carried out multiple suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, killing 74 people and injuring 85 others. 2011 – Ninety-eight containers of explosives self-detonate killing 13 people in Zygi, Cyprus.

#Events

0 notes

brookstonalmanac · 5 years ago

Text

Events 7.11

472 – After being besieged in Rome by his own generals, Western Roman Emperor Anthemius is captured in St. Peter's Basilica and put to death. 813 – Byzantine emperor Michael I, under threat by conspiracies, abdicates in favor of his general Leo the Armenian, and becomes a monk (under the name Athanasius). 911 – Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy. 1174 – Baldwin IV, 13, becomes King of Jerusalem, with Raymond III, Count of Tripoli as regent and William of Tyre as chancellor. 1302 – Battle of the Golden Spurs (Guldensporenslag in Dutch): A coalition around the Flemish cities defeats the king of France's royal army. 1346 – Charles IV, Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, is elected King of the Romans. 1405 – Ming admiral Zheng He sets sail to explore the world for the first time. 1476 – Giuliano della Rovere is appointed bishop of Coutances. 1576 – Martin Frobisher sights Greenland. 1616 – Samuel de Champlain returns to Quebec. 1735 – Mathematical calculations suggest that it is on this day that dwarf planet Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune for the last time before 1979. 1789 – Jacques Necker is dismissed as France's Finance Minister sparking the Storming of the Bastille. 1796 – The United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty. 1798 – The United States Marine Corps is re-established; they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War. 1801 – French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons makes his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovers another 36 comets, more than any other person in history. 1804 – A duel occurs in which the Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. 1833 – Noongar Australian aboriginal warrior Yagan, wanted for the murder of white colonists in Western Australia, is killed. 1848 – Waterloo railway station in London opens. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Fort Stevens; Confederate forces attempt to invade Washington, D.C. 1882 – The British Mediterranean Fleet begins the Bombardment of Alexandria in Egypt as part of the Anglo-Egyptian War. 1889 – Tijuana, Mexico, is founded. 1893 – The first cultured pearl is obtained by Kōkichi Mikimoto. 1893 – A revolution led by the liberal general and politician José Santos Zelaya takes over state power in Nicaragua. 1895 – Brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière demonstrate movie film technology to scientists. 1897 – Salomon August Andrée leaves Spitsbergen to attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon. He later crashes and dies. 1899 – Fiat founded by [Giovanni Agnelli]] in [Turin, Italy. 1906 – Murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in the United States, inspiration for Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. 1914 – Babe Ruth makes his debut in Major League Baseball. 1914 – USS Nevada (BB-36) is launched. 1919 – The eight-hour day and free Sunday become law for workers in the Netherlands. 1920 – In the East Prussian plebiscite the local populace decides to remain with Weimar Germany. 1921 – A truce in the Irish War of Independence comes into effect. 1921 – The Red Army captures Mongolia from the White Army and establishes the Mongolian People's Republic. 1921 – Former president of the United States William Howard Taft is sworn in as 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the only person ever to hold both offices. 1922 – The Hollywood Bowl opens. 1924 – Eric Liddell won the gold medal in 400m at the 1924 Paris Olympics, after refusing to run in the heats for 100m, his favoured distance, on the Sunday. 1934 – Engelbert Zaschka of Germany flies his large human-powered aircraft, the Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft, about 20 meters at Berlin Tempelhof Airport without assisted take-off. 1936 – The Triborough Bridge in New York City is opened to traffic. 1940 – World War II: Vichy France regime is formally established. Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of the French State. 1941 – The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana. 1943 – Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine (Volhynia) peak. 1943 – World War II: Allied invasion of Sicily: German and Italian troops launch a counter-attack on Allied forces in Sicily. 1947 – The Exodus 1947 heads to Palestine from France. 1950 – Pakistan joins the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank. 1957 – Prince Karim Husseini Aga Khan IV inherits the office of Imamat as the 49th Imam of Shia Imami Ismai'li worldwide, after the death of Sir Sultan Mahommed Shah Aga Khan III. 1960 – France legislates for the independence of Dahomey (later Benin), Upper Volta (later Burkina) and Niger. 1960 – Congo Crisis: The State of Katanga breaks away from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, in the United States. 1962 – First transatlantic satellite television transmission. 1962 – Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth. 1971 – Copper mines in Chile are nationalized. 1972 – The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts. 1973 – Varig Flight 820 crashes near Paris, France on approach to Orly Airport, killing 123 of the 134 on board. In response, the FAA bans smoking in airplane lavatories. 1977 – Martin Luther King, Jr. is posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 1978 – Los Alfaques disaster: A truck carrying liquid gas crashes and explodes at a coastal campsite in Tarragona, Spain killing 216 tourists. 1979 – America's first space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. 1983 – A TAME airline Boeing 737-200 crashes near Cuenca, Ecuador, killing all 119 passengers and crew on board.[1] 1990 – Oka Crisis: First Nations land dispute in Quebec, Canada begins. 1991 – Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 crashes in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia killing all 261 passengers and crew on board. 1995 – Yugoslav Wars: Srebrenica massacre begins; lasts until 22 July. 2006 – Mumbai train bombings: Two hundred nine people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India. 2010 – Kampala attacks: At least 74 people are killed in twin suicide bombings at two locations in Kampala, Uganda 2011 – Evangelos Florakis Naval Base explosion: Ninety-eight containers of explosives self-detonate killing 13 people in Zygi, Cyprus.

#Events

0 notes

ultrasfcb-blog · 6 years ago

Text

World Cup 2018: Will an African team reach semi-finals for first time?

No African side has gone beyond the quarter-finals at the World Cup

“When I first started to coach Ivory Coast I said to Didier Drogba: ‘We have some fantastic players and we can go far in the World Cup.’ He said: ‘No we can’t’.”

Sven-Goran Eriksson is trying to shed some light on why Africa is still waiting for a first World Cup triumph more than 20 years after Brazil legend Pele predicted a winner from the continent by 2000. By the end of the 2010 World Cup, the Swede understood Drogba was not being negative – just realistic.

“The reason why they don’t do it? One word: organisation. It was total chaos when I joined,” Eriksson told BBC Sport.

At one stage, Pele’s prediction looked like it might come to pass. Nigeria came top of a group featuring Argentina and Diego Maradona at the 1994 edition, while the likes of George Weah and Jay-Jay Okocha were making their mark in Europe during the 1990s.

Yet Africa, the second most-populated continent and a place where football is king, has still to produce a team to advance beyond the quarter-finals – let alone lift the gold trophy.

Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia will compete in Russia later this month – but few believe they will get near the final, including former Cameroon defender Lauren.

“I could say we’ll have a team in the semi-finals but that’s not the reality,” said the two-time Africa Cup of Nations winner. “We’re still behind the top teams.”

50 great World Cup moments: Roger Milla’s famous dance celebration

Power shift in Africa?

None of the five heading to Russia are in the top 20 of Fifa’s world rankings and Peter Odemwingie, the former Nigeria forward, claims African football has gone backwards.

“There’s definitely been a decline,” said the ex-West Brom, Cardiff and Stoke striker, who played at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

“Nigeria had one of the best African squads at the 1994 World Cup. We were knocking on the door. We won the 1996 Olympics by beating Brazil and Argentina with all their stars.

“That period was like, ‘yes, it’s coming’.”

But Nigeria, who will be competing at their sixth finals in Russia, are still waiting. Along with the rest of Africa.

The three teams to make the quarter-finals – Cameroon (1990) , Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) – have come from sub-Saharan Africa.

But in Russia, there will be more teams from the north than elsewhere on the continent, including a first appearance in 28 years for Egypt and a return after 20 years for Morocco.

A number of north African countries have players who learned their trade at academies in Europe, but it is Morocco who arrive at this World Cup with the most foreign-born players – seventeen of their 23-man squad were born outside the country.

Odemwingie believes those who play for the north African nations are “more clever” at reading the game and has also noticed a physical difference.

“It’s like Anthony Joshua fighting Floyd Mayweather,” he said on comparing a typical player from sub-Saharan Africa with one from the north. “The players in the north are a little bit leaner.

“They always start free-kicks faster, they have the mental game a bit more than the sub-Saharan teams.”

Egypt are competing at their first World Cup finals since Italia 90, where they drew with the Netherlands and Republic of Ireland before losing to England

Bonus rows and boycotts

At the 2014 World Cup, Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria all made headlines for the wrong reasons.

Ghana’s players boycotted training in protest at not receiving appearance fees owed to them in Brazil. It was only settled when their government sent more than $3m (£1.8m) in cash by plane. Meanwhile, Cameroon’s players arrived late in South America because of a dispute over bonus payments.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the country’s players signed an agreement last November concerning the payment structure for the 2018 World Cup to avoid problems in Russia.

Former Tunisia World Cup defender Radhi Jaidi believes the financial disputes are down to “broken promises”.

“Players who come from Europe to play for their country, these players get paid on time by their clubs, they get bonuses, but it can be different when they play for their country,” Jaidi told BBC Sport.

“People promise things and when they don’t get them players get frustrated and clash.”

Yet off-field controversies are not something north African nations have had to worry about, mainly because things like bonuses are sorted well in advance of the tournament, according to BBC Africa’s Piers Edwards.

“They’re more organised and there’s greater accountability,” added Edwards.

Of course, World Cup rifts are not exclusive to Africa.

Eight years ago, France’s players refused to train following Nicolas Anelka’s expulsion from the squad for verbally insulting coach Raymond Domenech, while the Republic of Ireland were rocked by Roy Keane’s infamous row with manager Mick McCarthy in 2002.

Former Cameroon and Arsenal defender Lauren talks to the BBC’s Victoria Uwonkunda about Africa’s chances at the 2018 World Cup.

‘It’s Africa, it’s like this’

Eriksson was in charge of Ivory Coast leading up to and during the 2010 World Cup.

He had plenty of talent at his disposal, including forwards Drogba and Salomon Kalou, who had both just won the Premier League with Chelsea, as well as midfielder Yaya Toure.

Yet the former England boss encountered “a total lack of organisation” as he prepared for group games in South Africa against Portugal, Brazil and North Korea.

“We played a friendly in Switzerland and we went into the dressing room and there were no shirts, no kit, and it was one hour and fifteen minutes before kick-off,” Eriksson said.

“I asked where the kit man was and was told he will come.

“One hour before the game – kit man not there. Forty-five minutes [before], the kit man came with two huge bags and he put them on the dressing room floor.

“All the players were in the bags looking for shirts that fit them. All I could hear was: ‘This is not mine, this is yours’.

“Just before the warm-up one of the players came to me and said: ‘I can’t play’. I asked: ‘Are you injured?’ He said: ‘No, the kit man forgot my boots.’ The hotel was far away so he couldn’t play.

“Drogba said to me: ‘Sven, it’s Africa. It’s like this.’

World Cup countdown: Suarez handball denies Ghana – 2010

The call for better organisation is familiar to those who have played and managed in the sub-Saharan region.

Patrick Mboma remembers Cameroon’s 2002 World Cup hopes virtually end before the team even arrived in Japan.

“The most important thing when you’ve qualified is that you have seven or eight months to prepare,” said the former Paris St-Germain striker.

“But you have some leaders who think you can prepare for a World Cup one month or two months before. It’s always too late.

“In 2002, I thought we could make it to the last four. Then it took 46 hours to reach Japan from Paris – so you can imagine how difficult it was.”

Tunisia’s preparations for the same tournament were disrupted by the sacking of Henri Michel shortly before the tournament.

“They spent a couple of months deciding on who was going to replace him. We didn’t win a game in Japan,” recalls Jaidi.

Lack of home-grown national managers

Of the 44 occasions African teams have competed at the World Cup come Russia 2018, 30 will have been managed by a non-African.

Cameroon, who as seven-time qualifiers are Africa’s most successful World Cup nation, have been led by four Frenchmen, two Germans and one Russian at the tournament.

In Russia, Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria will be coached by an Argentine, a Frenchman and a German respectively.

Scotland’s James McRea, a player with West Ham and Manchester United, set the tone for Africa’s World Cup outings when leading Egypt in 1934. Fans had to wait another 44 years for a first African World Cup coach, with Abdelmajid Chetali leading Tunisia to the continent’s first win at the finals – a 3-1 defeat of Mexico.

It was not until 2002 that a sub-Saharan nation first travelled to the finals with their own coach – Festus Onigbinde leading Nigeria, Jomo Sono at the helm for South Africa.

With no African having taken his nation into a World Cup quarter-final, these foreign appointments look set to continue.

“European coaches are different because they can offer a lot more than the matchday,” added Odemwingie.

“They can prepare better tactically rather than just relying on talent, which is what our coaches did.

“Now football has gone to sports science, nutrition… these are things some of our coaches had never even heard about.

“We’re more dependent on experienced coaches but we’ve a problem because we’re trying to grow our own managers and coaches.”

Senegal boss Aliou Cisse played in the Premier League for Birmingham and Portsmouth

Eriksson believes teams would have better success if they followed the examples of Senegal – making their first appearance at a finals since 2002 after appointing Aliou Cisse in 2015 – and Tunisia, who return to the tournament after a 12-year absence under Tunisia-born Nabil Maaloul.

“What some African nations do is have a local coach during qualification and if they are successful they then take in a big name from Europe or South America one or two months before the tournament,” he added.

“They should take in a coach and keep them for four years.

“It would be much better because, even if you have great players, to work with them for just one month at a World Cup is too little.”

Light at the end of the tunnel?

Morocco have qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1998

Morocco is in the running to host the World Cup in eight years’ time.

The North African nation is the only rival to a joint bid from Canada, Mexico and the United States for the expanded 48-team 2026 finals. A decision is due on Wednesday.

Journalist and African football expert Mark Gleeson does not think it is beyond the realms of possibility that Africa will be celebrating a World Cup success in the future.

“You will always get these rare moments when everything clicks,” he said. “Look at Turkey in 2002. It would have been a preposterous idea before the tournament that they would reach the semi-finals.”

And despite a lack of organisation, infrastructure and finances, Jaidi is confident about the future.

Recent changes have been made to refereeing structures and coaching standards in an attempt to bolster the chances of African sides and, for the continent to succeed globally, a clear pathway to local success needs to be carved, according to the former Southampton defender.

“The problem is wider than just: ‘Oh yeah, definitely an African team will win the World Cup,'” said Jaidi. “It’s a complex situation. It’s not just one issue or one problem.

“When African teams play at the World Cup, there is always a thought at the back of the mind that we have no chance.

“We need to build a base that gives support to young African players who are now 10 or 15 years old to help them to the highest standards.”

Brighton and Cameroon defender Gaetan Bong said even the most basic facilities needed to improve in Africa.

“Sometimes you cannot even play because the pitch is not good enough,” he said. “We need to develop more because we have a lot of talented players in Africa – but we don’t have strong leagues.”

For all the problems he encountered with Ivory Coast, Eriksson hopes Africa will be celebrating a future World Cup triumph.

Asked how far an African side is from being world champions, the Swede said: “I don’t know when but I think Africa will win the World Cup sooner or later. Maybe later. It’s a pity because interest in football in Africa is huge.”

Egypt’s World Cup Group A games 15 June: v Uruguay Yekaterinburg 13:00 BST 19 June: v Russia St Petersburg 19:00 BST 25 June: v Saudi Arabia Volgograd 15:00 BST

Morocco’s World Cup Group B games 15 June: v Iran St Petersburg 16:00 BST 20 June: v Portugal Moscow 13:00 BST 25 June: v Spain Kaliningrad 19:00 BST

Nigeria’s World Cup Group D games 16 June: v Croatia Kaliningrad 20:00 BST 22 June: v Iceland Volgograd 16:00 BST 26 June: v Argentina St Petersburg 19:00 BST

Tunisia’s World Cup Group G games 18 June: v England Volgograd 19:00 BST 23 June: v Belgium Moscow 13:00 BST 28 June: v Panama Saransk 19:00 BST

Senegal’s World Cup Group H games 19 June: v Poland Moscow 16:00 BST 24 June: v Japan Yekaterinburg 16:00 BST 28 June: v Colombia Samara 15:00 BST