It is now palpable as to the countries that are in the FIFA U-17 World Cup finals in Mexico,2011 with Africa conspicuously missing right from the quarter final stage.Cote D'Ivoire,Rwanda,Congo and Burkina Faso were Africa's representatives in the tournament;aside the former and a bit of the latter who are known at the senior levels,almost all four countries are not a power- house as far as Youth Tournaments are concerned.But with a lot of uncertainties in football today,Africans would have thought that a string of surprise could have been pulled especially with Cote D'Ivoire who have solid Youth Programmes  .

 Garnering four points apiece in groups A and F behind Brazil and the host nation Mexico,Cote D'Ivoire and Congo qualified to the round of sixteen stage which was the best result for Africa at the tournament.Rwanda managed a single point and Burkina Faso without a point at the bottom of groups C and E and bowed out in the first phase.

 Hypotheses will be rife among football lovers all over Africa after the lack-lustre performance by the African contingent.All four countries have and are still grappling with one form of trouble or the other.Rwanda is recovering fro the bloody genocide,the political upheavals in Cote D'Ivore and Congo could speculatively be a contributory factor to their poor performance.Burkina Faso is fighting hunger,educational and economical problems.

 Probably AFRICA HAS STARTED PARADIND PLAYERS WITH THE RIGHT AGE THAT IS WHY WE ARE NOT PERFORMING,or more so, inadequate preparation could have led to the dismal performance.

 The power- houses have not been present in the Youth Tournaments for some time now but that is not a yard -stick for other African countries not to perform because football has really developed and spread worldwide.

 This is a clarion call to the Football Associatons of all African  countries to attach more seriousness to grassroot football development, for it is the future of our various national leagues and the senior national teams.