Wails of the European clubs and a peek into Euro-African history

 Behind Liverpool coach, Jurgen Klopp's careless be'little'ling remarks is a deeper political truth hidden. The branches of European root spread throughout the world in the latter half of the last millennium. While colonialization has ended and countries in Africa, America and Asia have gained independence, the invisible hand of the market and neo-colonialism still does its dark magic.

 

African colonialization

Arabs used the sea routes to Africa well before the Portuguese. When the Portuguese took hold, they established trading ports and maritime activities flourished in the West and Southern Africa. Eventually, Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and other European powers took control over the entire African continent. The Britons popularized cricket and rugby in the Southern, Eastern and Central African regions they controlled. France controlled the North and West. Egypt was an exemption, it was controlled by Britain and gained its independence in 1922. Even after the independence, Britain had its influence over Egypt. But, Egypt sought the help of the USSR for its anti-colonial struggles. USSR's increasing dominance after the Second World War pushed the USA to help all the African colonies to gain independence. Britain was pressurized to withdraw from Egypt by the USA. Freed Egyptians helped Sudan's independence struggle and Algeria's uprisings. USSR's dominance forced Britain to allow the independence of Sudan. Independence has cut the direct exploitation but has paved the way to neo-colonialism. Most of the crucial minerals required for multi-national companies are mined in Africa.

 

Reminiscence of American colonialization

Understanding America's independence and the struggle is a complex task. The European traders nearly swept off the indigenous population when they landed. Of the 964 million people in the Americas, only around 54 million are native people of the continent or whose ancestors survived the plight of European plunder. The Amazon basin consists of the highest concentration of the indigenous population. The South American continent is a world apart from its Northern counterpart.

 

Ground reality

Marx's ‘primitive accumulation’ makes sense when seeing the modern-day development in the European countries and the USA. Football operates within the sphere of this domination. Europe's modern football transfer system relies on talents from Africa. While African league competitions are heavily invested and popularized, the national tournament Africa Cup of Nations is pushed to the background. More than that, European football superpowers are bemoaning about their players leaving the squad. A stark contrast to the ‘no racism’ taglines and taking-a-knee symbolisms in these clubs. Is inclusivity just showing the numbers in the record or respecting the values and emotions of people from all sects? Do the players leaving cause confusion within the squads infused with millions of dollars and used to rapid rotations throughout the season? Maybe. But, is not going to the competition affect a player's morale? Certainly.

 

Everything is fair in love and war

Principle 1.1 of Annexe 1 of the 'Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players' states that "Clubs are obliged to release their registered players to the representative teams of the country for which the player is eligible to play on the basis of his nationality if they are called up by the association concerned. Any agreement between a player and a club to the contrary is prohibited." The problem for AFCON 2021 relies on a specific notion that clubs do not have to release players outside of the specified international windows. So the postponement of the AFCON might seem the issue here. But it isn't. If Euro 2020 was postponed, there won't be any quarrels among the clubs. Branding or the unconscious labelling of the Africa Cup of Nations as some distant African competition stirs the debate. AFCON is an international competition and the players in the clubs are called upon by their national teams. There are some matters in this world that shouldn't be clouded by the judgements of revenue and loss.