A few days before the kick-off of the football world cupit is useful and happy to remember that no less than ten African selections will set foot on the American, Canadian and Mexican lawns. This is, undoubtedly, an indisputable indicator of the rise in sporting power of the continent. Nevertheless, we cannot deny the depth of the fractures that accompany it. It is undeniable, in fact, that Africa has never weighed so heavily in terms of a World Cup in the three-headed format, which foreshadows the 2030 edition, which will see, for the first time, an African nation, the Moroccoto host, alongside Portugal and Spain, the global meeting place for football lovers.
In a few days, starting on June 11, ten African countries qualified among 48 teams, compared to five in the previous format, will compete in the hope of setting foot on the lawn of MetLife Stadium in New York, New Jersey, on July 19. We should therefore rejoice in the reform of the International Association Football Federation (FIFA), which has enabled this arithmetic leap reflecting a profound sporting reality.
In twenty-five years, the quality of African players has definitely reached the level of that of other continents. They now participate massively in the five major European championships, like the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga, the Italian Serie A, the German Bundesliga and, of course, our Ligue 1. This density in turn feeds increasingly competitive national selections.
Africa has anchored itself in the landscape of the Global South as one of the global hubs of effective and unifying soft power.
This is evidenced by the excellent results of the valiant team of the Teranga Lions of Senegal and that of the Atlas Lions of Morocco, both during the 2022 Qatari World Cup and during the recent African Cup of Nations (CAN). This level of excellence also reflects on continental competitions. CAN 2025, organized in Morocco, massively followed abroad and recognized for its excellence, will remain a significant milestone in the emergence of African sports.
From nation-building to entertainment diplomacy
This rise in power is the result of assumed sporting strategies, thought out over the long term. Like Qatar since the 1990s, the TürkiyeChina and India, several African countries have made sport a pillar of their international projection. We can thus speak today of a geopolitics of African sport which is proudly displayed.
This second edition of the CAN organized by Morocco served as a reminder of the excellence of the preparation upstream and the perfect control of the progress of the matches, thanks in particular to the nine stadiums delivered or renovated on time and in compliance with international standards, including four in Rabat. By hosting this 35th CAN, Morocco has perfectly succeeded in its “trial run” four years before the 2030 World Cup, while it will be the first to take place partly on the African continent.
Beyond that, with this competition, Africa has anchored itself in the landscape of the Global South as one of the global hubs of effective and unifying soft power. The CAN has thus highlighted the sporting interest of a competition which is no longer “provincial” or “folkloric”. The excesses observed during certain matches have not damaged this record of continent branding. Like the cultural and creative industries (CCI), sport is both a powerful economic lever, as evidenced by the 2% of global GDP that it generates, but also a vector of national cohesion as well as an instrument of international branding. This was hotly discussed at the recent Africa Forward summit in Nairobi.
It is also in the light of this specificity, increasingly threatened, that the creation of a “global coalition for social cohesion and peace through sport” was undertaken, which will soon be presented on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the creation of the Crans-Montana Forum. The main African “geo-sporting” nations, like South Africa, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, DRC, Nigeria and Morocco, will explain the reasons for this craze. This is distinguished in particular by massive investments in sports, logistics and tourism infrastructures. The result is an obvious mastery of work which is demonstrated by the perfect organization – both on a sporting, festive and safe level – of these planetary events, sources of prestige and tourist income.
Morocco occupies a major place in this system. Its sports sector is designed as a central tool of soft power and influence. The leading African investor in sport since 2018, the Cherifian Kingdom will co-organize the 2030 World Cup and is making strides in the construction of the largest stadium in the world (115,000 seats) in Rabat. Its Mohammed VI Football Academy regularly trains world-class players, like the main scorers of the recent CAN, who are also stars of European pitches. For example, the top scorer in the competition was Brahim Diaz, a Moroccan player playing for Real Madrid.
Le sport has become a powerful revealer of the continent’s geopolitical rivalries
Rwanda is following a similar trajectory via the success – morally controversial and legitimately contested – of its “Visit Rwanda” brand, its organization of the cycling world championship in 2025, its active candidacy for the organization of a Formula 1 Grand Prix, but also the modernization of its stadiums. It is the same with the emergence of African basketball teams, as with the fascination of the American public for players of Afro-descendants, like Victor Wembanyama, of the San Antonio Spurs, who largely contributed to taking his team to the NBA Finals. Senegal, for its part, has invested 50 million euros in the Dakar Diamniadio Sports City, a vast sports complex which will host the 2026 Youth Olympic Games this fall.
Revealing the fractures and tensions of the continent
However, these dazzling sporting and commercial successes also reveal, implicitly, the deep African inequalities. Of the 54 member states of the African Union and the 54 federations that make up CAF, nearly twenty still cannot host an international football match. However, it is important not to ignore the controversies relating to the “looting” of African sporting talents by European championships.
In addition, sport has become a powerful revealer of the continent’s geopolitical rivalries. During the CAN 2025, Algerian interference (cyberattacks, information wars, informational operations…) which disrupted the competition constituted the marker of the strong territorial tensions opposing the two neighboring Maghreb countries. Earlier in the year, the DRC’s denunciation of the “Visit Rwanda” campaign, as well as its conspicuous withdrawal from the Parc des Princes and the jerseys of the PSGwere the direct consequence of the conflict which has opposed the two countries for thirty years, but more particularly since the capture of Goma, in North Kivu, in January 2025, by the March 23 Movement, supported by the Rwandan armed forces.
Sport, and among them football, is definitely much more than a simple sporting competition for Africa. It constitutes one of the fiery lungs, one of the vital organs, whose pulse is now accelerating as the start of the 2026 World Cup approaches, on June 11.
*Emmanuel Dupuy is president of the Institute for Prospective and Security in Europe, teaching geopolitics at the School of Advanced International and Political Studies (HEIP) and the Catholic University of Lille.
