Lost In Time Futbol

Football in Tanzania is a pretty simple environment: you're either a fan of Young Africans, or you're a fan of Simba. The two clubs have shared 47 of the 61 Premier League titles awarded since the independence of Tanzania, and to the same extent they also share the football fans over the country and even in areas across the borders: both clubs have fans all over Eastern Africa.   Simba defenders tackle a Young Africans player [thecitizen.co.tz] Young Africans, who are more commonly just called Yanga by their fans, were formed in 1935 by Dar es Salaam residents who decided to form their own football club and compete in a league full of non-African clubs. Ever since its birth, Yanga has been a symbol of the anti-colonial movement, becoming associated with Tanganyikan nationalists and freedom fighters. The club was so representative that a political party (Tanganyika African National Union, TANU) even adopted their traditional yellow and green as their own colours. At some point i...

Didier Drogba and his teammates from the Ivorian National team helped temporarily stop a civil war by delivering a message on live television.  Didier Drogba surrounded by military men after a home match for Ivory Coast [Getty Images] West Africa is a region marked by remarkable cultural diversity and deep historical roots, and as a result it is home to a complex mixture of ethnicities, languages and religions. This background has created a political landscape just as complicated, which unfortunately often causes terrible civil wars that tear apart entire countries and their communities. Prime example of that are the wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia and the still ongoing rebellions in Mali. Ivory Coast suffered the brutality of internal conflicts as much as its neighbors. Felix Houphouët-Boigny, the country's first president after the independence, ruled the country for over 30 years, and under his leadership there was unprecedented stability and economic growth, to the point that thi...

Morocco is a wonderful country, full of history, magnificent natural landscapes and a rich culture. Although it has a strong national identity, the country is relatively young: it only gained independence from France and Spain in 1956. In the earlier part of the century and until then, the country was effectively split: on the north end, from the straight of Gibraltar and covering basically the whole mediterranean coast of Morocco, Spain held a protectorate, while the rest of the country bar Western Sahara (back then called Spanish Sahara ) was under the French protectorate. On this article we will concentrate on the Spanish protectorate. Due to tensions between the Spanish and the Moroccans, and given the fact that most Spanish football teams in the region were mainly composed of military members, the clubs from the Spanish Protectorate were for a long time forced to play among themselves, without chances to compete with the rest of the country in the Iberian peninsula. In the 20'...

As I try to cover football from all over the world in an unbiased manner, I picked a completely random non-European country to discover football there. The imaginary pin on the imaginary globe landed in Botswana, a country not exactly known for its strong football tradition, so I'd say a perfect candidate for this experiment. Satisfied with the result I dived right in it, and this is what I've found. Botswana is a Republic in the south of Africa. It borders South Africa, Namibia, Angola and Zambia, and most of its land is covered by the Kalahari desert. It is home to 2.4 million people and it gained indipendence from the United Kingdom in 1966. Known for its wildlife and natural resources (i.e. diamonds!) Botswana is considered one of Africa's most stable and peaceful democracies, with a growing economy ranking 4th in Africa in terms of GDP per capita. It is also potentially the place where humanity started, as various researches suggest that it may have been the birthplace...

Football in South Africa, like in most places, started when the British brought it there. Until the end of apartheid, the beautiful game in the country has been deeply affected by the segregation: an all-white football association (FASA) was formed in 1892, but an Indian, a Bantu and an African Coloured association soon followed. As a demonstration of the effect that racial discrimination had on South African football, the country was suspended by FIFA for over thirty years, from 1961 to 1992, not allowing them to participate in international competitions and greatly hurting the growth of the sport. When the apartheid was beginning to fall, a new football association, SAFA, was born, and the South African national team finally played again after more than two decades. Apart from the social improvements, the abolition of apartheid produced possibly a golden era for South African football: the country managed to develop a competitive professional league, the Premier Soccer League, it hos...