Football in Africa is followed passionately from Morocco on down to South Africa. It is simply the game we love. You'll know when an important football match is being played in Africa because the will literally come to a standstill. Everywhere in Africa you'll see young boys kicking around a football. Sometimes the ball will be made of plastic bags with string wrapped around it, sometimes it will be made of crumpled up paper. As long as it can be kicked, there will be a game.

It's a Male Thing: Football is really a male thing in Africa. You won't see a lot of girls kicking a ball around. The Nigerian women represented the continent in the 2007 Women's World Cup held in Beijing from September 10 – 30. Women rarely discuss about the latest European superstars. Women in Africa are usually too busy working while their men are watching or listening to football matches. But women's football is slowly making some waves on the continent. There is an African Women's Championship held every 2 years which doesn't get publicity as much.

Witchcraft and Football: Publicly witchcraft is often scorned as mere superstition but its use is still very widespread. Hence you have football officials trying to stamp out the practice at least at the major tournaments. Witchcraft is a sensitive subject in Africa especially among the more educated people.

Top African Teams and Their Nicknames: The top 5 African teams are: Nigeria (The Super Eagles), Cameroon (The Indomitable Lions), Senegal (The Lions of Teranga), Egypt (The Pharaohs) and Morocco (Lions of Atlas). Nigeria and Cameroon have a long standing football rivalry similar to that of Brazil and Argentina.

Upcoming football events

The African Champions League: is an annual competition for African football clubs and its run by CAF (Confederation of African Football). The competition is not quite as popular as some of the European leagues which are watched closely in Africa, but nationalism takes over during the finals which are held at the end of October and mid November.  

Africa Cup of Nations: The cup is held every two years and is African soccer's biggest event. Forty-seven countries compete in 12 groups to qualify for 15 out of the 16 places. The qualifying rounds have been taking place since September 2006. The 2006 Cup winner was Egypt.

The Confederation Cup: Is a competition for the National Cup winner in each country. The finals take place in November. Current standings and match fixtures can be found on the CAF web site.
World Cup 2010 will be held in South Africa and it's a major event for the continent. Many Africans feel that the world is finally respecting their ability to hold an event of this magnitude. Mandela was brought to tears on the news that South Africa won the right to host the event.