It is almost four months now since Vahid Halilhodzic was eased out of his job as coach of the Ivory Coast, but the pain evidently still lingers. He holds out little hope for either Ivory Coast or any west African side at the World Cup, blaming corruption and egotistical players for the continued underperformance of African football at international level, and the impression he gives is of relief that his Ivorian adventure is over.

At the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, Halilhodzic emerged with great credit amid the hysteria that followed the gun attack on the Togo team as they travelled to Cabinda. Ivory Coast were based in the city and, as all around him panicked, Halilhodzic was the voice of calm, drawing ironic comparisons with the siege of Sarajevo, and ensuring early suggestions that certain players would quit the tournament never came to pass.

The problem, though, was his team. Good enough in a 3-1 win over Ghana, they were flat in drawing 0-0 against Burkina Faso – a result that, for all the criticism, guaranteed their passage to the second phase as group winners – and then, having taken a 90th-minute lead in the quarter-final against a mediocre Algeria, they contrived to concede an equaliser before losing in extra-time. It was Halilhodzic's first defeat in almost two years in charge, and he was sacked a few days later.

"I've had time to rest," the urbane Bosnian said, "but there are some things left for me to absorb. Everything happened in a blitz, and what I really needed was a vacation. I have to admit that after everything I look at the offers I've had, and at life generally, with different eyes. A lot of things happened in Ivory Coast, and now I have to be much more careful. Every lesson in life is expensive, and I paid mine."

Yet Halilhodzic didn't go to Ivory Coast as an ingénu – as you fear Sven-Goran Eriksson, his replacement, has done. Eriksson has no experience of football outside of Europe apart from his ineffective spell in charge of Mexico, whereas Halilhodzic led Raja Casablanca to the Moroccan title before winning the African Champions League in 1998.

"Football has generally made a huge step forward since then," Halilhodzic said. "Of course, that progress is obvious in Africa as well. They play far better than they used to, and the quality has certainly improved, but African football suffers from chronic organisational problems. There, politicians are interfering in absolutely everything, especially football. The reasons are obvious, football is very popular, particularly at national level, and some marginal political characters are using football to collect political points.

"Basically, what we have is organisational chaos, but corruption also plays its part. I would say that one of biggest problems is the fact that most of the players are very narcissistic, individuality is first. The personal has precedence over the team interest, so there is a lack of team spirit, and this makes it impossible to create winners.

"The socio-economic status in Africa plays a big role in football and is a problem of its own. That is where that individualism comes from, everybody wants to assert themselves and create a chance to play in Europe. That creates the huge influence of the so-called agents, fraudsters, who also want to interfere in the coach's job. That is why I think African football is unable to use the potential it has."

He is clear too on the reasons for his own dismissal. "Political influence was the biggest cause of my departure, as our defeat was exploited to create political points," he said. "But what was the reason for the failure? There were a lot of different things. There was organisational chaos, and the players who came from Europe, after the terrorist attack in Cabinda, were practically shivering with fear.

"Besides that, there was huge pressure on our back. But, what I honestly think is that the loss against Algeria brought us many positive things in preparation for the World Cup. I learnt a lot from that match; it gave me the answers to many unanswered questions, and I think that particular match would have helped us achieve great results in the World Cup. That was our actual aim at the Cup of Nations. Most of the players were thinking about the World Cup and their own clubs, so we were all focused on doing well in South Africa. But, they didn't let me use what I learnt.

"I had huge plans with this team, and I was confident that we were about to achieve great results. We studied our opponents and their good and bad sides, and my plan was to draw with Brazil and win against Portugal, which would have given us tail wind. For Africans, that is very important, that self-confidence, because when they have it, when they believe in themselves, they can play above their real possibilities. But, you know what happened and all I can say is that I wish them good luck."

Eriksson, he says, will be the beneficiary. "I don't know much about his work, and can't give a proper comment on that," he said. "But I know that – in comparison with me – he has the easiest job in the world. Everything is already prepared, the team is created, so is the plan and all he needs now is to collect points and build on the work that I have done. Everything is already done; is there an easier job?"

Well, yes there is, as Halilhodzic admits, for he is pessimistic about the chances of the African sides. "I won't say that is impossible [one could do well]," he said, "because they really have great players and can achieve a lot. They certainly don't lack motivation, and for the first time they have the advantage when it comes to support, but don't forget that such support entails greater expectations. What's most important is the psychological moment – that once they are playing they devote themselves to the team, and not to self-promotion."

Halilhodzic is too diplomatic to name the player who so irked him, and who turned the politicians against him, but it probably doesn't take a genius to work it out. Eriksson has been warned.