AFCON
CAMEROON ESCAPE COMROS ATTEMPT AT AFCON OUSTER
BY MATTHEW SMITH
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) have dismissed Comoros’ final appeal to have Cameroon thrown out of the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) following the west African nation being stripped of the rights to host the tournament.
Cameroon were initially selected to host this summer’s tournament, however concerns over delays to infrastructure development and security saw the Confederation of African Football (CAF) move the finals to Egypt.
Cameroon were allowed to continue participating in qualifying however, and finished second in Group B along with Morocco, Malawi and Comoros, earning them one of 24 spots in the tournament.
The Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) were also given hosting rights to the 2021 tournament, despite CAF having a pre-existing agreement with the Cote d’Ivoire to host the event.
In response, the Comoros Football Federation (FFC) filed a claim to CAS that the Cameroon national team should have been disqualified by CAF after FECAFOOT was stripped of hosting rights.
The first appeal was filed by the FFC on January 28 “on the basis of a failure to reach a decision constituting a denial of justice”.
The FFC then filed a second appeal on February 11 against CAF’s decision not to suspend Cameroon for CAN 2019 and to allocate the organisation of CAN 2021 to FECAFOOT.
The cases were heard by a panel of three CAS arbitrators on May 29 in Lausanne at the organisation’s headquarters, but were deemed inadmissible.
CAS ruled that FFC had no legal claim against FECAFOOT, nor did they have any sporting claim – Comoros finished bottom of the qualifying group, and so would not have been allocated Cameroon’s spot in the finals regardless of the outcome.
A statement from CAS read: “The Panel referred to the consistent case law of the CAS according to which any legal claim must be based on an interest worthy of protection.
“The panel concluded that the FFC had no concrete sporting interest. Indeed, according to the CAF regulations, the Panel considered that, even in the event of disqualification of the Cameroon national team, such disqualification would have no impact on the ranking of the FFC in its qualifying group for the 2019 CAN and that it was therefore mathematically impossible for it to qualify for this competition.
“The CAS Panel also concluded that the FFC had no sufficient legal interest in requesting that FECAFOOT be suspended by CAF.”
– insidethegames
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
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