Ten things you should know about Equatorial Guinea and its football team

Last update 23 July, 2016 por Alberto Llopis

Equatorial Guinea is a peculiar African country that has long been a Spanish colony. independent from 1968, The official language is Spanish and is the only country in Africa speaking. Most of its inhabitants have names and Spanish surnames. Your football team is also curious. We tell some details about Equatorial Guinea and its football team.

1- Equatorial Guinea has a 1.622.000 habitantes and it is one of the richest countries in Africa with a 29000 dollar nominal income per capita fruit of oil reserves, It is indicating that its inhabitants should enjoy a similar standard of living to that in countries like Portugal or Greece. Sin embargo, The problem is that this average is not due to the actual situation: wealth accumulates only one 15% of the population, while the other 85% He is living in hunger and extreme poverty levels of.

2- Equatorial Guinea does not have a railway network and there is barely paved roads. It is the only Spanish-speaking country in the world with a majority black population, and virtually all inhabitants have Spanish names because the Spanish is next to the French the official language. Spanish fruit of the past (hasta 1968 He belonged to Spain), Catholicism practiced by the 81% of the population.

3- Equatorial Guinea is a democracy which now governs Teodoro Obiang and where there are elections every seven years. This in theory, because the practice says there just parties and that serious opponents of the regime of Obiang die or disappear. This is what is called a “democracy”. They say this man influences the alignments of the national football team.

4- Life expectancy in Equatorial Guinea It's really daunting. Life expectancy is 49 years for men and 53 for the women. Just a 4% of the population is over 65 años. Far from the European average. Por supuesto, respect for human rights is at stake.

5- Equatorial Guinea has never played a World Cup and only one African Nations Cup, to from 2012 where he was felled in the quarterfinals. They call their African Red similar to that of Spain clothing and the birthplace of many of his players. But also it has another common name: Nzalang.

6- The selection of Equatorial Guinea is basically composed of players from outside the country. Spaniards mostly Guinean descent, but they have come to play Cameroonians, Liberians o sudamericanos (hired by Brazilian businessmen). Some famous players who have played with the Nzalang are the Spaniards Javier Balboa, Rodolfo Bodipo, the brothers Benjamin and Ivan Zarandona, Juvenal, Emilio Nsue, Ivan Bolado or Sipo among other players. Many of them international in lower categories of Spain.

7- Equatorial Guinea created his league in 1979. Until that year there were championships for teams of European citizens and championships for teams indigenous inhabitants. Now there is very little organized league and has frequent stoppages and problems of all kinds.

8- No news there on a daily basis, only three FM stations and five short-range. hardly any 12.000 Internet users and 4.000 TV sets.

9- The climate is equatorial with average temperatures around 25 degrees. It is convenient vaccinated before going to the country to not catch diseases of the area.

10- The team plays its home games at the Nuevo Estadio de Malabo, whose capacity is 15.000 spectators. It is within a major sports complex where a hotel where the visiting teams stay there.