carrying the African Cup of Nations trophy in 1957 On the African continent, South Africa created the
South African Football Association in 1892, then joined
FIFA in 1910, before leaving in 1924 and returning in 1952. Then, Egypt created its
federation on 3 December 1921 and joined FIFA in 1923; then Sudan created its
federation while it was under
Anglo-Egyptian domination in 1936 and joined FIFA in 1948. Finally, Ethiopia created its
federation in 1943 and joined FIFA under the name of
Abyssinia in 1952. These were the first nations to organize themselves into an independent selection and to join FIFA. The integration of these four African nations into FIFA was incomplete and this was evident in the organisation of the
World Cup qualifiers: in
1934, only Egypt took part in the World Cup qualifiers (against
Mandatory Palestine) in the
Africa–Asia group and took part in the
1934 World Cup, making it the first African nation in the World Cup. In 1938, Egypt was transferred to a
European group but withdrew. In 1950, no team was registered and in 1954, only Egypt played in the qualifiers in the
European zone against
Italy. The involvement of African teams in the qualifiers was either with Asia or Europe and this led to the idea of creating an
African confederation. == Overview ==