AFCON
Ghana’s Gyan and Cote d’Ivoire’s Zokora hope for the best for their teams
Organisers of the Africa Cup of Nations draw holding Tuesday evening have extended invites to two former international as special guests.
They are Ghanaian and Ivorian legends Asamoah Gyan and Didier Zokora.
According to CAF, the two former internationals, happy to be in Yaoundé for the ceremony, are eager to know the composition of the groups for the final tournament.
Didier Zokora, the most capped player in Côte d’Ivoire team, is eager to experience the event.
“I wish my country had a fairly understanding hen. All the qualified countries are great nations. We have to avoid the top teams and after the rest we can manage,” said the former Elephants’ midfielder, better known as “Maestro Zokora”.
The pretext of this draw gives him the opportunity to meet other legends of African football such as Asamoah Gyan.
The Ghanaian, who took part in the last Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, hopes the best for the team he played for for 16 years.
“We’re hoping for a good draw for Ghana with an affordable group, because everyone wants to go through the first round and continue the adventure.
“All I can say is I wish Ghana the best of luck in the draw. Ghana is a country of football, with many talents. We have a team of young people who play well in their clubs. It’s a rebuilding team with a new coach,” said the 51-goal striker with the Black Stars.
Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are placed in pot 2 of the draw, alongside Egypt, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea.
The draw will take place at the Yaounde Conference Centre at 7 p.m. local time (6 p.m. GMT).
At the end of the ceremony, which will be streamed on CAF’s digital platforms, the composition of the different groups will be revealed.
The final tournament of the Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2021 will take place from January 9 to February 6, 2022.
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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