Saturday, 13 June 2026
AF

The Half Spaces — Editorial Desk

The Africa Desk

CAF, AFCON, African Football Pipelines

Africa

About this byline. The Africa Desk is the editorial desk that produces this coverage. Articles signed off by this desk represent the desk's editorial perspective and house style, not the views of any individual journalist. Drafting may be assisted by large language models; editorial direction, structural choices, fact-checking, and final approval are made by the desk and its editors before publication. Read our full editorial disclaimer →

The Africa Desk covers African football — CAF competitions, the African Cup of Nations, the academy pipelines (Génération Foot, Right to Dream, JMG, ASEC Mimosas) that have done more institutional work for European football than any single elite academy on the continent, and the tactical trends emerging from the continent's domestic leagues.

What This Desk Covers

The desk writes about African football with the seriousness it deserves and the institutional context it requires. It is interested in the structural story (recruitment pipelines, federation politics, broadcasting, the brain-drain economy) alongside the on-pitch tactical analysis, and it treats the continent's tournaments as elite sporting events rather than regional curiosities.

Voice Lineage

The voice is shaped by African football's long-form tradition — Ed Dove, Jonathan Wilson's African essays, the Nigerian and Ghanaian football-writing communities — and by an instinct toward institutional reporting that resists treating Africa as a single undifferentiated story.

House Style

Direct, structurally engaged, willing to argue against the European-centric default of football coverage. The desk treats African football's tactical innovations and institutional achievements with the same seriousness it would give the Premier League.

Editorial Influences

Ed Dove's African football coverage. Jonathan Wilson on continental football's structural story. The community of writers who have spent decades arguing that African football is undercovered relative to its contribution to the global game.

Editorial Leanings

Pro-African football's structural achievement against the European-centric defaults of mainstream coverage. Tends to defend African coaching and tactical traditions more vigorously than is sometimes warranted. Sceptical of the Premier League's narrative around its African players when that narrative obscures the academies and federations that produced them.

Specialisms

African FootballAFCONCAF Champions LeagueAcademies & Pipelines

Africa

Coverage from this desk

2 articles published
op-ed 28 Apr 2026

African Football's European Imprint: The Continent That Reshaped the Game and Got the Footnote

Mohamed Salah is the highest-scoring African player in Premier League history. Achraf Hakimi is among the world's best full-backs. Victor Osimhen, Ademola Lookman and Mohammed Kudus have all been the most-watched performers at recent international tournaments. The pipelines that produced them — Génération Foot, Right to Dream, JMG, ASEC Mimosas — have done more institutional work for European football than any single elite academy on the continent. They have rarely been credited.
op-ed 27 Apr 2026

AFCON 2023: What Africa's Tournament Told Us About the Game's Tactical Future

Côte d'Ivoire won at home after a tournament that produced two of the most coherent tactical systems in 2024 international football. The deeper story is what the tournament said about African football's institutional depth — the coaching, the squad management, the recruitment pipelines — and what European football has been quietly stealing from CAF.