England manager Roy Hodgson thinks an
African nation has more chance of winning
next year's World Cup than a European one.
England are preparing for their final two
friendlies of a turbulent yet successful year in
which they qualified for the 2014 World Cup
in Brazil.
There, they will be joined by a whole host of
European sides like Germany, Italy, Holland
and holders Spain, who are one of the
favourites.

Yet Hodgson believes an African country has
more chance of succeeding in South America
due to the similarity in climate between the
two continents.

"I think (African nations) may have a stronger
chance than any of the European teams to be
perfectly honest because of the climate," said
Hodgson in the programme notes for the
Nigeria v Italy game, which is taking place at
his old club Fulham next week.

In some respects, Hodgson's point adds up,
although both continents are so vast that their
respective climates vary from one end to the
other.

Pele once claimed that an African nation
would win the World Cup by the end of the
20th century. That did not happen, of course,
but three African nations - Cameroon, Ghana
and Senegal - made it to the quarter-finals in
1990, 2002 and 2010 respectively.

The five African nations bound for the World
Cup will be decided upon the culmination of a
playoff next month.
As it stands, Burkino Faso (ranked 52nd in
the world), Ivory Coast (17th), Nigeria (33rd),
Ghana (23rd) and one of Tunisia (47th) and
Cameroon (59th) look set to qualify.

Hodgson, who worked with Kanu at Inter,
plus John Pantsil and Dickson Etuhu more
recently at Fulham, is sure African countries
are good enough to go even further.
"There are many African players out there of
excellent quality now," Hodgson added.
"They play in the top European leagues and
that makes the African nations very strong.
"Nigeria have traditionally been one of the
strongest, with some famous names in their
team.

"Whoever is at the game on Monday night will
see two very good teams and it will be an
exciting outcome. Who knows, we may even
see a little pointer for how things will go in
Brazil."

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/world-cup-2014-brazil-tournament-will-favour-african-teams-predicts-roy-hodgson-8935576.html