BY NILA AMEROVA/BETUS
That is the overriding question ahead of the 2010 South Africa World Cup. The allure is entirely geographic in nature, the occurrence of the World Cup for the first time ever on African soil. But it is no less a seductive question.
Some would have this sort of consideration/debate premature as an African nation has yet to make it into the semi-finals let alone the final of the world’s biggest soccer event. Only two nations have made it as far as the quarterfinals – Cameroon (1990) and Senegal (2002).
BetUS has rolled out several interesting markets of which some are as follows:
Winning Continent:
•Europe -210
•South America +185
•Rest Of The World +1200
To Reach Semi-final:
•Ivory Coast +500
Ghana +1000
•Cameroon +1000
•South Africa +1400
•Nigeria +1500
•Algeria +4000
To Reach Final:
•Ivory Coast +1200
•Ghana +3000
•Cameroon +4000
•Nigeria +3500
•South Africa +4000
•Algeria +20000
Some interesting anomalies in the last two aforementioned markets are a) Nigeria are priced larger at +1500 than Cameroon at +1000 to reach the semis, yet conversely b) Cameroon are priced larger at +4000 than Nigeria at +3500 to reach the finals. Huh?
Some interesting World Cup facts in the last two decades to take note of when considering the market values of each of these outfits are as follows:
1990 World Cup in Italy – Cameroon and Egypt represented Africa.
Cameroon surprised everyone when they finished at the top of Group B, ahead of Romania, Argentina and Soviet Union, in that order. Top three nations at the time advanced out of the group stage.
Cameroon were the Cinderella story of the tournament, going all the way to the quarterfinals inspired largely by the play of Roger Milla, the first African player to become a major star on the international stage. Cameroon beat Colombia 2:1 in the last 16 before losing narrowly to England 3:2 in the quarters.
1994 World Cup in USA – Cameroon, Morocco and Nigeria represented Africa.
Neither Cameroon nor Morocco advanced out of the group stage. Nigeria though did, once again surprising pundits by topping Group D, ahead of Bulgaria, Argentina and Greece in that order.
Nigeria’s run ended in last 16 when they were eliminated by Italy 2:1.
1998 World Cup in France – Cameroon, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tunisia represented Africa.
Once again, Nigeria topped group D, this time ahead of Paraguay, Spain and Bulgaria. Nigeria’s run ended in the last 16 when they lost to Denmark 4:1.
2002 World Cup in South Korea –Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia represented Africa.
This time Senegal emerged the Cinderella of the tournament. Senegal advanced out of the group stage on second place finish, after Denmark and ahead of Uruguay and France (defending champions no less) in that order. In fact, Senegal handed the tournament’s first big shock upset when they beat the defending champs France 1:0 in their opening group match. Senegal emulated Cameroon’s inspired run of 1990, going all the way to the quarters, beating Sweden 2:1 in the last 16 before falling somewhat surprisingly to Turkey 1:0 in the quarters. Senegal were minutes away from setting a new standard for Africa by reaching the semis.
No comments:
Post a Comment