The historic tournament has fought for attention for a long time, and squabbling over its scheduling ignores its delights as a spectacle. So fans expect respect for the African cup of nations.
As they wait for successful matches, they are hopeful of something good. Most fans are also staying updated with online betting news to know what’s up and get other exciting information about upcoming matches. Following injuries, Kante and Chalobah have also returned to the team.
Chilwell is likely to return in mid-January, while Kovacic is anticipated to be released soon. As a result, a final decision could be made once the complete squad has been assessed in the coming weeks.
And as for Tuchel’s words, it’s not uncommon for managers to be diplomatic, and it’s not like he’ll unveil his complete January plans in front of the press a few weeks before the window opens.
Instead, at least in England, the focus has been on which Premier League clubs will be most affected by the competition. Many facets of international football can appear to encroach on club football, but the Cup of Nations appears to be continually defending its existence. Perhaps more than any other championship, it exemplifies the difficulties of putting together a calendar for a genuinely global sport.
When asked if he would join Ivory Coast or stay with Ajax, Sébastien Haller, an Ajax striker, answered angrily. He stated, “This issue betrays Africa.” “Would a European player be asked this question before the Euros?”
He is probably correct in terms of disrespect, but the Euros do not coincide with the European season. In 2017, the Confederation of African Football (Caf) agreed to shift the event to June-July as part of a larger global calendar rationalization three months after Ahmad Ahmad’s election victory ended Issa Hayatou’s 29-year reign as president.
However, due to infrastructure issues, the Boko Haram insurgency, and the Anglophone crisis, the 2019 tournament was shifted from Cameroon to Egypt in November of the same year, Cameroon taking over in 2021. (The tournament in Guinea has been put back to 2025, and the tournament in Ivory Coast has been pushed back to 2023.) The 2019 event took place in the European summer as planned, albeit shifted a week earlier to avoid Ramadan.
Caf agreed in January 2020 to move the tournament back to January–February in 2021, with a June tournament to coincide with the end of the first rainy season, citing “the problem of unfavorable weather conditions.” Why this isn’t a problem in 2019 has never been explained.
As it turns out because Covid forced the tournament to be postponed to this year, it’s just as well the tournament is in January-February, because otherwise, it would end just four months before the World Cup begins.
Despite the fact that Al Ahly will play Monterrey in the Club World Cup on February 5, the day before the Cup of Nations final, which appears to be less than ideal for the six Ahly players in Egypt’s roster. Even though Abidjan’s average June rainfall is somewhat higher than Yaoundé’s, the 2023 Cup of Nations will be held in June-July. Is it possible to play football in a competition when it rains 270mm per day?
We’ll have to wait and see how things turn out. The Cup of Nations is held every two years is another common gripe among European teams, yet this is a historical and financial necessity.
It was founded in 1957, during the continent’s wave of independence, and is the second-oldest continental event, older than the Euros. As Gamal Abdel Nasser pursued a profoundly anti-colonial agenda, Egypt won the first two championships (the second as the United Arab Republic after joining Syria). Ghana, which had obtained independence from Britain in 1957, was the outstanding team of the 1960s; their flag and clothing featured a black star, purposefully echoing Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey.
Hayatou said that the Cup of Nations was founded when Europe had little time for African football and that there was no reason for Africa to adjust its calendar simply because European teams were buying African players in significant numbers.
That might be a better beginning point for negotiation than a solution. Still, in a world of self-interest (not that Hayatou was immune to it), it at least represented someone standing up for African football’s larger good. Patrice Motsepe, who took over as Caf president from Ahmad Ahmad in March, is a more outspoken supporter of FIFA.
Regardless of who is in charge, the problem continues. The reality is that European football is the pinnacle of the club game, and a January-February competition means that a slew of the greatest African players must leave their clubs every two years, which cannot be good for their career chances.
Calls for a biannual World Cup have recently surfaced as part of broader calendar issues. As those talks continue, the only hope – although a futile one – is that football, rather than commercial or political interests, will take precedence and that the Cup of Nations will be given with the respect it deserves.
Unlike many recent hosts, Cameroon has a strong match-going culture; as a spectacle, this might be one of the great Cups of Nations unless Covid restrictions have a substantial impact. And that should be the priority, not Premier League fan frustrations.
