The World Cup comes around every four years. For a greedy international football fan like me, that’s four years too long. I can somewhat satisfy those cravings through continental tournaments like the Euros, Asian Cup, and AFCON.
To casual football fans, the most prominent continental tournament is the European Championships, which are taking place in Germany this summer. Major broadcasters such as ESPN and Fox Sports are going to plaster their audiences with Euro coverage. However, what’s ticking me off is the lack of attention given to the Asian Cup and AFCON.
Western football outlets seem more concerned about how the Asian and African players leaving their club teams for one month will affect the league tables, instead of what winning one of those trophies would mean for the players.
From the perspective of a minority, this isn’t surprising, but it’s still incredibly frustrating. It seems to be another reminder that the African and Asian fans don’t matter as much as the European ones.