Coach Sebastien Desabre, head coach for the Democratic Republic of Congo has said that Standards of football pitches and stadiums in Africa must improve if any African country want to win the FIFA World Cup.
Dasebre’s made this known at a symposium organized by CAF in Ivory Coast for coaches aimed at reflecting on the just ended Nations Cup final and to look at how future tournaments could be improved ascome as Ghana became the latest casualty to be banned by the continent’s football governing body.
According to him, the CAF symposium is a good opportunity to speak to colleagues and other coaches who competed at the 2023 AFCON finals, especially now that qualifying for the 2025 edition in Morocco has begun.
“We have a link and there is a lot of respect between us, the work of each of us is maybe different but it’s important to also take some experience from other coaches to continue to learn and to improve our knowledge, and also to get feedback about the competition”.
Desabre, who took DR Congo to the semi-finals of the just ended 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, said whilst the standard of play may be improving, the infrastructure is not there to back the coaches.
The experienced coach speaking to BBC World Service noted that some pitches, structures and infrastructures need to be improved to meet international standards.
“The standard of the professional game is improving, from more than 10 years in Africa, I saw changes in CAF, in federations, in academies.
“I know, one time surely, an African team will win the World Cup because either way it’s destined for African football.
“But we need to continue to build stadiums and training pitches to help the coaches and players put on a good spectacle and get good results”, he said.
Ghana, who becomes the latest casualty of playing their home qualifiers outside of their country will join the likes of Benin, Kenya and Madagascar among several other nations to prepare for the 2025 edition in Morocco.
