What is the ratio of local to foreign coaches of African national teams?

Contrary to the popular belief - and often, assumption - that Africa has more foreign coaches than Africans in charge of their national teams, the current case provides an interesting vice versa reality.

The nationality of coaches was a prominent at the last Africa Cup of nations in Gabon, with observers worrying about the fact that only four of the 16 nations had native tacticians in charge: Senegal (Aliou Cisse), DR Congo (Florent Ibenge), Guinea Bissau (Baciro Cande) and Zimbabwe (Callisto Pasuwa).

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A latest check of the technical benches of all 55 member associations of CAF revealed that 30 of them have national teams coached by Africans (28 substantive coaches and two caretakers), representing 55%.

These countries are:

1. Libya: Jalal Damja (Libya)

2. Benin: Oumar Tchomogo (Benin)

3. Cape Verde: Lucio Antunes (Cape Verde)

4. Gambia: Sang Ndong (Gambia)

5. Guinea: Kanfory Mohamed 'Lappe' Bangoura (Guinea)

6. Guinea Bissau: Baciro Cande (Guinea Bissau)

7. Liberia: James Debbah (Liberia)

8. Niger: Francois Zahoui (Ivory Coast)

9. Senegal: Aliou Cisse (Senegal)

10. Central Africa Republic: Francois Oman Biyick (Cameroon)

11. Chad: Mahamat Oumar (Chad)

12. DR Congo: Florent Ibenge (DR Congo)

13. Sao Tome and Principe: Gustave Clemente Nyoumba (Sao Tome and Principe)

14. Burundi: Ahcene Ait-Abdelmalek (Algeria)

15. Djibouti: Moussa Ghassoum (Mauritania)

16. Eritrea: Alemseged Efrem (Eritrea)

17. Ethiopia: Ashenafi Bekele (Ethiopia)

18. Kenya: Stanley Okumbi (Kenya)

19. Somalia: Haruna Mawa (Uganda)

20. South Sudan: Joseph Malesh (South Sudan)

21. Sudan: Mohamed 'Mazda' Abdallah (Sudan)

22. Tanzania: Salum Mayanga (Tanzania)

23. Comoros: Amir Abdou (Comoros)

24. Lesotho: Seephephe Matete (Leostho)

25. Mauritius: Joe Tshupula (Mauritius)

26. Namibia: Ricardo Mannetti (Namibia)

27. Seychelles: Ralph Jean-Louis (Seychelles)

28. Zambia: Wedson Nyirenda (Zambia)

Caretaker coaches

29. Zimbabwe: Norman Mapeza (Zimbabwe)

30. Malawi: Gerald Phiri Snr (Malawi)

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On the other hand, there are 20 nations currently who have employed the services of expatriate coaches, representing 36%.

They are:

1. Egypt: Hector Cuper (Argentina)

2. Tunisia: Henryk Kasperczak (Poland)

3. Morocco: Herve Renard (France)

4. Burkina Faso: Paulo Duarte (Portugal)

5. Ivory Coast: Marc Wilmots (Belgium)

6. Mali: Alain Giresse (France)

7. Mauritania: Correntin Martins (France)

8. Nigeria: Gernot Rohr (Germany)

9. Togo: Claude Le Roy (France)

10. Cameroon: Hugo Broos (Belgium)

11. Congo Brazzavile: Sebastien Migne (France)

12. Equatorial Guinea: Esteban Becker (Argentina)

13. Gabon: Jose Antonio Camacho (Spain)

14. Rwanda: Antoine Hey (Germany)

15. Uganda: Milutin Sredojevic (Serbia)

16. Zanzibar: Vitezslav Nemetz (Czech Republic)

17. Angola: Beto Bianchi (Brazil)

18. Botswana: Peter James Butler (England)

19. Madagascar: Nicolas Dupuis (France)

20. Mozambique: Abel Xavier (Portugal)

*Algeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Swaziland are all without coaches at the moment.

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The nation to have produced the highest number of national team coaches working in Africa however is France, the powerful European nation that colonized much of Africa in the past.

There are as many as six French men coaching African teams at the moment.

Interestingly, the United Kingdom - arguably the biggest other colonial power in Africa along with France - only have just one coach currently working on the continent.

Djibouti, Burundi, Somalia, Central African Republic and Niger all have the distinction of employing Africans from nations other than theirs as coaches.