Nigeria, Jan. 27 -- The 2024 AFCON tournament has exposed the myth of the superiority of foreign coaches over African coaches in managing African football teams. Foreign coaches have not outperformed their African counterparts in the 36 matches that were played at the group stage. Indeed, in one crucial dimension - topping a group, which is a measure of how good a team is - African coaches have been superior to foreign coaches. Nine of the sixteen teams that qualified for the next round are led by African coaches.

This represents a success rate of 64 per cent, when measured in terms of the number of teams that are led by African coaches. Even though this is less than the 70 per cent success rate of foreign coaches, five of the teams that...