From a Ghanaian to an All-African Perspective on the World Cup: History and Fans’ Support

This article traces the history of World Cup qualification considering the national teams and fans' reactions across the African continent. A survey of some fans’ views including Ghanaians helps to understand the effects of the FIFA World Cup events in Africa. This contributes to addressing how the WC event is experienced by Africans from political, social, cultural, and economic perspectives. Findings show that the World Cup events promote unity and esprit de corps among Ghanaians, bridge political differences, foster socialization and boost economic activities. Again, Ghanaian fans identified factors such as poor preparations, low commitment of players, and monetary issues affecting their country’s qualification to the Russia 2018, which influenced them to switch their support to a European country with players of African heritage after the early departure of Africa representatives. The article further describes the experiences of some African fans with or without their country’s participation at the event.