South Africa hosted the 2010 world cup and they were the first African country to do so. Africa isn’t as successful in world cups because no one of the African nations have been  able to have a decent tournament, African countries were always the underdogs throughout the world cup. According to Sabelo  the 2010 World cup was “able to fuel negative nationalism and positive patriotism simultaneously.” The world cup was a way that the South African country was going to try to shine light on the African country and demonstrate that they have the potential to host a mega event as the World Cup. Pan-Africanism was a key goal for the World Cup hostess, they wanted to be  acknowledged by the rest of the “powerful nations.” Sabelo described the African continent as being isolated and a developing nation, and the World Cup brought attention to Africa and helped them “bring developmental benefits” that could help Africa develop into a more powerful continent.

Memory:

Uruguay’s Luis Suarez (R) saves the ball with his hands during a 2010 World Cup quarter-final soccer match against Ghana at Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg July 2, 2010. Suarez received a red card for handling the ball.

In the 2010 World Cup, it was the first tournament that an African Nation (Ghana) almost passed to the semifinals.  This lead the world to support them because they were the underdogs but they were unfairly eliminated by Uruguay which everybody looked as wrong.    

Ghana team after getting knocked out the World Cup 2010 being yet so close to make history and be the first African team in a semifinal. Even though the lost hurt it brought a lot of support and demonstrated improvement for the African continent.

Will there ever be an African nation World Champion? The time is approaching. Maybe then Africa would be looked as an greatly improved continent.