2034 Vision: FIFA World Cup comes to West Africa

I don come again o. I will never be deterred, nor will I be tired of repeating myself on this particular issue like a broken record.

2034 is 11 years away, but I already have a vision in my sights.

In that year, a historic event will hold in West Africa. The whole of Africa, plus 22 other countries of people of African descent, will have prepared the region for 11 years to host the most ambitious ‘pilgrimage’ in human history, a return of the Black person to his roots, through an event that will earn him a new place in an inevitable new World Order emerging from the on-going global realignment of civilisations, forces and interests.

Those who have eyes can already see.

To start with, the World Cup of football is NOT only about football. A closer look reveals an astonishing reality – the football played during the one-month long period of the four-yearly ‘feast’ is the least of the activities involved in hosting the event. If Africans did not realise this fact before, the Qatar 2022 festival revealed and demonstrated it.

For the eight years period that it took to prepare for the one-month long 64 matches played across eight venues, this small corner of the world was transformed into the centre of the Universe. Qatar 2022 was the story of how sport catalysed and fast-tracked the transformation and re-branding of a country into the world’s number one tourist destination, one of the world’s most visited cities in the past decade, and one of the fastest developing environments in the world across virtually all sectors, including sports.

In short, the Qatar 2022 was much more than just a football event. In the eight years it took from bidding to hosting, football was the least activity.

That’s the nature of hosting mega-events. They