AFCON
Poor South Africa! Gets CAF presidency; loses Afcon and World Cup slots!
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
As it happened in the qualifying series for the delayed Africa Cup of Nations holding in 2022, South
Africa’s Bafana Bafana have agonizingly crashed out of contention for a place
at the 2022 World Cup.
Among those eliminated in Africa, South Africa suffered the most pathetic fate, losing out to Ghana
even when both had 13 points each and the same goal difference.
They were eliminated on the third tier of tie-breaking procedure – scoring lesser cumulative goals
than Ghana.
Sports Village Square recalls that Ghana was partly responsible for the elimination of South Africa
from the Africa Cup of Nations holding in Cameroon in January.
South Africa finished third on the group log behind Ghana and Sudan.
Thus, the 1996 Africa Cup winners as well as participants at the 1998, 2002 and 2010 World Cups will
have to wait till the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire to be at a
major football tournament.
But for now, for the first time since 1988, the Africa Cup of Nations will hold without the national
team of the CAF president featuring.
Sudan beat South Africa 2-0 on in the last qualifying day to pick the second ticket of their Group
C.
It is the second time Sudan who are now in the same final group with Nigeria, will qualify since a dramatic injury-time induced elimination of Nigeria for the 2012 edition.
Ten years ago, Sudan were already eliminated on the field after losing their last qualifiers
to Ghana at home.
But mother luck ran their way as Nigeria, wrongly thinking they needed a two-goal advantage win
over visiting Guinea had their initial 2-1 lead cancelled following a 96th minute injury time equalizer by Guinea in the very last match the Super Eagles has since played in Abuja.
Thus, an already eliminated Sudan came in as one of the best runners-up in the groups and
Nigeria got eliminated.
So in January, the CAF President, Patrice Mostsepe of South Africa will be presiding over his first
AFCON but without his own national team.
The last time that happened was in Morocco 1988 when acting CAF president, Abdel Halim Muhammad of
Sudan’s team did not qualify.
Abdel Halim Muhammad was acting for the late CAF president, Yidnekatchew Tessema of Ethiopia who
died in the previous year.
Successor to Abdel Halim Muhammad, Issa Hayatou of Cameroon had his team featuring throughout his
long tenure.
Even one-term president, Ahmad of Madagascar had his team as debutants at the 2019 edition in
Egypt.
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.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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